by Dmitry Shlapentokh (02/20/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In 2011, Kazakhstan’s President expressed strong support for Vladimir Putin’s initiative of creating a Eurasian Union. In fact, Nursultan Nazarbaev himself presented similar ideas almost 20 years ago. While Putin sees the new Eurasian Union as a Russia-centered geopolitical entity with exclusive ties between Russia and other members, Kazakhstan regards its relationship with Russia as just one among several others. Kazakhstan is actually distancing itself from Moscow, which has increasingly lost its attraction as a center of science and technology for Kazakhstan’s elite. One indication is Astana’s decision to phase out Moscow’s control over the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
KAZAKHSTAN EMBARKS ON FAR-REACHING ECONOMIC REFORMS
by Georgiy Voloshin (02/06/2013 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In his December 2012 address to the nation, President Nazarbayev presented an ambitious program of political, economic and social transformations aimed at permitting Kazakhstan to become one of the world’s thirty most developed and prosperous countries by 2050. Nazarbayev’s decision in mid-January 2013 to reorganize the government, via the establishment of a new ministry in charge of regional development and the optimization of policy functions within existing structures, was the first demonstration of this new course. Later on January 23, the Kazakh president met with members of his government in order to provide concrete guidelines for the short- and medium-term.
By Georgiy Voloshin (11/28/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On November 21, the local prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan's Almaty region officially requested the provincial court to order an administrative closure of over forty print and online media outlets, including the Russian-language Respublika web-portal and the popular Vzglyad newspaper. The complaint also included the names of two television channels (K-Plus and Stan.tv) whose frequent reporting on Kazakhstan's domestic politics are widely considered as the most outspoken source of criticism of the country's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his government, especially after the December 2011 bloody events in Zhanaozen.
The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.
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