A Kazakh court sentenced a former economy minister to 24 years in prison this week for murdering his wife, in a case that rocked the Central Asian nation over the issues of domestic violence and the impunity of high-ranking officials, Reuters reported. Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 44, was...
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Kazakhs have been riveted by a high-profile trial over the alleged murder of a 31-year-old woman by her husband, a case that has shocked the country and prompted calls to address the ongoing problem of domestic violence in the resource-rich Central Asian nation, Radio Free...
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Kazakhstan is planning to open its secret service archives containing the records of thousands of people convicted during the repressive regime of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a move aimed at decolonizing the Soviet Union’s era in Central Asia, Radio Free Europe reported. Kazakh officials will release...
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Campaign signs festooned the streets of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, in anticipation of parliamentary elections on March 19. The signs feature candidates pledging to reduce housing density in the Central Asian country’s cities, reduce prices amid worldwide inflation, expand energy networks, and improve...
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Kazakhstan recently memorialized the first anniversary of Bloody January, the term for the four days of civil unrest and police clashes a year ago that led to the deaths of almost 240 people before Russian forces intervened and restored order. “It was a time of trial...
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President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won Kazakhstan’s early presidential elections over the weekend by a landslide, a victory that many international observers said lacked “competitiveness,” Radio Free Europe reported Monday. Preliminary results showed that the incumbent secured more than 81 percent of the vote, easily defeating his five little-known...
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The president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, appears to be enacting a series of reforms that promise to reorganize the country’s politics and its economy as former Soviet republics navigate the instability following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the political front, Al Jazeera wrote, Tokayev called a...
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Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for snap presidential elections, aiming to extend his rule and implement a series of reforms in the oil-rich Central Asian nation, Al Jazeera reported. The election date is set to take place on Nov. 20 and comes shortly after Kazakhstan approved...
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Kazakhstan’s capital of Nur-Sultan will revert to its former name, “Astana,” a move seen as another attempt by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to distance himself from his predecessor, Radio Free Europe reported. In 2019, Tokayev renamed then-Astana to Nur-Sultan in honor of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had been...
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Kazakhs overwhelmingly voted in favor of decentralizing government, reducing the power of the president, rescinding former president Nursultan Nazarbayev's status as "Leader of the Nation," and banning his family from official positions. "We have shown that we are united in building the new, just Kazakhstan," President...
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Kazakh voters overwhelmingly backed a series of constitutional changes aimed at reforming the country’s political system and curbing the privileges of founding leader Nursultan Nazarbayev after three decades of rule, Agence France-Presse reported. The referendum is part of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s “New Kazakhstan” initiative that would...
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Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev promised to implement a series of reforms in the tightly-controlled former Soviet country, just two months after Kazakhstan witnessed deadly, unprecedented nationwide protests, the Associated Press reported. Tokayev proposed sweeping changes in order to avoid deepening “stagnation” in the resource-rich Central Asian...
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