Registan’s Kazakhstan News & Analysis Archive

Kazakhstan is the most vibrant economy of Central Asia and increasingly important in international politics. It is perhaps because of Kazakhstan’s success in transitioning toward becoming a country with a vibrant economy and generally responsive — though not democratic — government that it has received comparatively less attention at Registan. However, as public expectations begin to outpace the capability of the government to keep society satisfied and violent extremist groups being to operate in the country, Kazakhstan demands attention to determine whether or not its path continues to diverge from the rest of Central Asia or begins finally to converge.

Several of our authors have experience living, researching, and working in Kazakhstan and others have worked on a variety of research and analysis projects on Kazakhstan. Our most current coverage of Central Asia news can be found on our front page. Inquiries about our Kazakhstan news and analysis, hiring Registan authors to consult on Kazakhstan, or any other topic, can be submitted via the contact form on our about page.

Nazarbayev Demonizes the Internet

by Nathan Hamm
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President Nazarbyaev gave a long speech at the Astana Economic Forum yesterday, describing what Trend.az calls his “concept of civilized development in the 21st century.” (For those with a particular interest in this subject, the full text of the speech is available.) In the course of laying out his vision, which includes social and economic [...]

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Has War in Afghanistan Ruined Central Asia?

by Nathan Hamm
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While Central Asia’s international political profile has risen considerably since 2001, it has primarily been seen in the West through the prism of Afghanistan. The policies of Western governments towards Central Asia as a whole and as individual states have widely fluctuated, but in almost every case, been heavily shaped by policies toward Afghanistan. US [...]

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Focus on the “Social” in Social Media

by Nathan Hamm
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Earlier this week, Small Wars Journal published an article by Matthew Stein, a research analyst currently working at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, discussing the role of videos recorded and posted by citizen bystanders in the information battle to control the narrative over the police’s violent crackdown on protesters in Zhanaozen [...]

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Making Sense of Jund al-Khilafah’s Claims

by yaqubjan
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Jund al-Khilafah (JaK), a Kazakh-led terrorist group based in Pakistan, issued its second statement on the Ansar al-Mujahideen online forum on April 1 claiming affiliation to Mohammed Merah. JaK’s first statement was released on March 22. On the day after Mohammed Merah was killed in Toulouse on March 22 JaK issued the following the statement [...]

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Kazakhstan’s Shameful Mass Trials

by Joshua Foust
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The Kazakh terror group Jund al-Kilafah claimed responsibility for the crazy shootout in Toulouse, France, last week. Like its other claims for attacks outside of Kazakhstan, there’s very little evidence they actually do this beyond saying so on some website. Even so, it makes for an interesting evolution of the Kazakhstan Terror phenomenon, as it [...]

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Abai — Strauss on the steppe

by Christopher Schwartz
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Registan Bloggers Michael Hancock-Parmer and Christopher Schwartz have teamed up to write about Abai Kunanbaiev (or, if you prefer, Abay Kunanbayev). A force of nature in the Republic of Kazakhstan, he was similarly popular in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Born Ibrahim, he took Abai (“careful”) as his takhallus (تخلص), or pen-name. He is most [...]

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Abai – the Historical Figure

by Michael Hancock-Parmer
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Registan Bloggers Michael Hancock-Parmer and Christopher Schwartz have teamed up to write about Abai Kunanbaiev (or, if you prefer, Abay Kunanbayev). A force of nature in the Republic of Kazakhstan, he was similarly popular in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Born Ibrahim, he took Abai (“careful”) as his takhallus (تخلص), or pen-name. He is most [...]

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Kazakhstan as a model for nuclear-free Islam?

by Christopher Schwartz

As matters between Israel and Iran continue to irradiate, I just want to throw this out there to see what readers think: if much of Iran’s drive to go nuclear is motivated by a desire to serve as a model of Islamic leadership, could Kazakhstan be utilized by diplomats and theorists as an alternative?

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Some History

by Michael Hancock-Parmer

In an effort to clear my brain while I construct some kind of cogent argument about the depth and nature of the relations  between Kazakhs and Cossacks in the middle of the 19th century, I will share some choice citations from the works I’ve been reading. I understand that I’m dropping these into a blog [...]

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Facing up to illiberal democracy

Kazakhstani ballot box (Wikipedia). by Christopher Schwartz

In the last two months, we’ve born witness to more incidents of illiberal democracy or democracy’s “doubles” here in Central Asia/Eurasia, from Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections which many say was an experiment in pseudo-pluralism; to Turkmenistan’s surreal presidential election that has left those of us on the outside (and, indeed, many of those on the inside) [...]

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