KZBlog

Tag archive for ‘CIS’

• Leaders of Kazakhstan on Niyazov’s Passing

  Nazarbayev, currently in China, sent a telegram to the acting President, reading in part: Saparmurat Atayevich was an outstanding leader of the Turkmen people, a politician with foresight, constantly working hard for the good of his homeland. He played a key role in creating and strengthening the independent state of Turkmenistan, and developing the economic […]

  12/22/06 • (Comments Off on Leaders of Kazakhstan on Niyazov’s Passing)

• Turkmenbashi is dead

  Usually I keep my focus on Kazakhstan, but this is a big one. The President-for-life, Saparmurat Niyazov, died Wednesday night of heart failure at age 66. As is well-known, he was an authoritarian leader given to fulfilling whims and crushing dissent. Although there were rumors that his heart was weak, his health was considered top-secret. […]

  12/21/06 • (Comments Off on Turkmenbashi is dead)

• Image

  Sean Roberts has an article up about nation branding and (inevitably) Borat. Upon the occasion of yet another big paid article in the Washington Post, Who Needs Borat? Here’s the Kazakh President, highlighting the President’s new devil may care attitude to the comedian (which itself did not emerge until after Sascha Baron Cohen did an […]

  12/20/06 • (Comments Off on Image)

• OSCE Leadership

  Christopher Pala who writes for The New York Times and The Washington Post, has an article summarizing the situation around the OSCE leadership bid. It’s a good summary in a few words but the last paragraphs highlight an issue that I haven’t seen too much discussion of: Kazakhstan’s reaction if it is turned down. European […]

  12/04/06 • (1)

• Media in Kazakhstan

  Kazakhstan.neweurasia has an interview up with Merkhat Sharipzhan, director of the Kazakh language service of RFE/RL. Very interesting look into attitudes toward Kazakh langauge–by Kazakhs (“I was unpleasantly surprised to see a “Who wants to be a Millionaire” show in Kazakh, where the majority of questions were about the nomadic way of life. Why not […]

  11/30/06 • (Comments Off on Media in Kazakhstan)

• 

  The Night Watch triology, and links to Kazakhstan

  Or The Night Watch and Day Watch movies and books are really cool; you should buy them now My wife and I went to buy a telephone. The store we got it from was running a contest in which if you spend between 5 and 10 thousand tenge you get a free DVD, if you […]

  9/02/06 • (Comments Off on The Night Watch triology, and links to Kazakhstan)

• A Negro Looks at Soviet Central Asia, by Langston Hughes

  Copied from Harvard’s Central-Eurasia-L – Announcement List Available for order from Kyrgyzstan: A reprint of Langston Hughes’ memoirs of traveling in Central Asia. Description and ordering info behind the cut, although I have to say that I contacted the editor and haven’t heard back from him since, so I don’t know how reliable he is. […]

  7/27/06 • (Comments Off on A Negro Looks at Soviet Central Asia, by Langston Hughes)

• Andijon Video

  Video of the Andijon Uprising This video–70 minutes long–was put together from two videos made on the scene, both confiscated by the government of Uzbekistan. It’s been edited and used to prove the government’s case that it was just defending itself from well-armed and funded international terrorists (In one accusation–well-armed Islamic terrorists bent on creating […]

  6/26/06 • (Comments Off on Andijon Video)

• The election trail gets a bit bloody

  Unfortunate Incidents and Warnings of Violence After the Kyrgyz revolution, the government of Kazakhstan (among other nations) took a long hard look at their own situation and potential for such an uprising. A number of statements were made to the effect that Kazakhstan was too politically and socially stable, that the level of living was […]

  11/25/05 • (Comments Off on The election trail gets a bit bloody)

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