Search Results for: Nazarbayev

Aidana Tastanova is a Kazakhstan national and a 4th year law student attending the Moscow State Institute of International Relations under a Kazakh government scholarship.  On Friday, September 1, during an address to the people of Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed a national referendum on the issue of approval or rejection of the construction of [...]

Kazakh voters approved major constitutional reforms in a landslide referendum Monday. These reforms include provisions to curb nepotism and remove the last vestiges of Former President Nursultan Nazarbayev‘s power. Under Kazakhstan’s current constitution, Nazarbayev retains the title First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, or Elbasy, giving him significant power despite his removal in 2019. Nazarbayev’s [...]

When Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in February, the international community responded with “unprecedented” and “severe” sanctions against Russia. Their expansive scale essentially leads to Russia’s economic and even political isolation. The purpose of the sanctions is clear: to punish Putin’s regime for the violation of international law and stop its military aggression against [...]

In the aftermath of mass protests that swept major cities across Kazakhstan last month, resulting in hundreds of casualties and ultimately the deployment of Russian and allied troops to restore order, a law professor from Nazarbayev University explains what happened, and what we can expect for the Central Asian nation going forward. How did the [...]

The National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan or KNB Saturday issued a statement announcing the detention of its former chief Karim Massimov on suspicion of high treason. A pre-trial investigation into the treason allegations has been launched by the KNB. The KNB, which replaced the Soviet KGB as Kazakhstan’s intelligence agency, is engaged [...]

Claiming that he was “restoring law and order” in Kazakhstan, President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev announced Friday that he has ordered armed forces to “shoot and kill without warning” to quash an uprising ignited by surging consumer fuel prices. “I have ordered law enforcement organizations and the army to shoot and kill without warning,” Tokayev said in [...]

Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday called participants in the fuel-price protests that have swept the Central Asian nation this week “terrorists,” accusing them of attempting to undermine their country at the behest of foreign powers, and ultimately asked Russia and the other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to come to Kazakhstan’s [...]

Following the arrest of dozens of protesters during demonstrations on Kazakhstan’s Independence Day on Monday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced Friday that the nation would begin moving toward liberalizing laws about rallies and the formation of political parties. Rallies without official approval are illegal in Kazakhstan, which prompted the arrests at Monday’s demonstrations in the capital [...]

A French appellate court on Wednesday overturned the extradition of Mukhtar Ablyazov , Kazakhstan's former energy minister accused of misappropriating USD $6 billion from BTA Bank . In January, a French trial court in the Aix-En Province...

A French court in Aix-En Province order the extradition of Mukhtar Ablyazov , Kazakhstan's former energy minister accused of misappropriating $6 billion from BTA Bank . The French court agreed to the extradition requests from...