Category Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan protests: president threatens ruthless crackdown

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Kassym-Jomart Tokayev says in televised address ‘I plan to act as toughly as possible’

Kazakhstan’s president has threatened to crack down ruthlessly on protests ongoing across the country, claiming the unrest has led to deaths and injuries among law enforcement officers.

“As the head of state … I plan to act as toughly as possible,” said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in a televised address on Wednesday afternoon. “This is a question of the safety of our country. I am certain that the people will support me,” he added, saying he had no plans to flee the country’s capital.

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Protests erupt in Kazakhstan over fuel price rise – video

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Protests have broken out in several Kazakh towns and cities after the central Asian nation's government lifted price caps on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and the cost of the popular alternative to petrol soared. The government resigned on Wednesday, hours after the president declared a state of emergency in large parts of the country in response to the rare outbreak of unrest. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has appointed Alikhan Smailov as acting prime minister.

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Kazakhstan president declares state of emergency after rare outbreak of unrest

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Thousands join demonstrations in Almaty, the largest city, and Mangystau province sparked by rising fuel prices

Kazakhstan’s president has declared a state of emergency in large parts of the country, as authorities struggled to respond to a rare outbreak of unrest.

Sparked by rising fuel prices, protests began in the west of the country over the weekend and have spread quickly.

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Golden history of Kazakhstan’s Saka warrior people revealed

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Exhibition at Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to tell story of little known civilization that flourished from eighth to third century BC

Wisdom, as Bob Marley put it, is better than gold. From next month however, the precious metal is central to a major new historical exhibition in Cambridge using loaned artefacts telling the story of an ancient civilization little known beyond Kazakhstan.

Golden objects unearthed from ancient burial mounds built by the Saka warrior people of central Asia – a culture which flourished from around the eighth century BC to the third century BC – will go on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

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Oliver Stone derided for film about ‘modest’ former Kazakh president

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Eight-hour series about Nursultan Nazarbayev criticised for stoking cult of personality of 30-year ruler

Oliver Stone has interviewed Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev for a new eight-hour film series which has been attacked as a hagiography that contributes to the leader’s cult of personality.

In the film, Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, Stone employs the same non-confrontational approach to interviewing autocrats that has made him a favourite of Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych and others seeking to polish their reputations by sitting down with the Oscar-winning director of Platoon and JFK.

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Kazakh-American group claims Borat Subsequent Moviefilm ‘incites violence’

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The Kazakh American Association has released a letter on social media accusing Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest Borat film of ‘justifying harassment’

A group of Kazakh-Americans has demanded that Amazon withdraw Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Sacha Baron Cohen’s new satirical comedy which – like its 2006 predecessor Borat – identifies Kazakhstan as the home country of its fictional journalist character Borat Sagdiyev.

In a letter published on social media shortly before the film’s official launch, addressed to three senior Amazon executives, the Kazakh American Association says that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm “may cause irreparable harm to to Kazakhstan’s national image and people as its comedic nature may justify ethnicity-based harassment”. It adds: “This film incites violence against a highly vulnerable and under-represented minority ethnic group.”

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UK crime agency loses case against ex-Kazakh president’s family

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Judge overturns unexplained wealth orders that led to freezing of London properties

Britain’s National Crime Agency has lost a high court attempt to force the daughter and grandson of a former president of Kazakhstan to explain where they got the money to buy £80m of property in London.

Last year, the NCA froze three of the family’s properties, including a mansion on north London’s so-called Billionaire’s Row with an underground swimming pool and cinema, over claims they were acquired using proceeds from unlawful activity.

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Should we build cities from scratch?

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With another 2.5 billion urban dwellers predicted within the next 30 years, should we expand existing cities? Or is there a case for starting afresh?

People have been building new cities from scratch for millennia. From the foundation myths surrounding Athens and Rome, to the clearance of virgin forests in western New York state to create the “garden city” of Buffalo, to scores of purpose-built capitals – Brasília, Canberra, Astana, Washington DC – building new cities is just something that humans do.

When countries rise up, when markets emerge, people build new cities. Today, though, we are taking it to unheard-of levels. We have never before built so many new cities in so many places at such great expense as we are right now.

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Kazakhstan president Nazarbayev steps down after 30 years in power

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Nursultan Nazarbayev has led oil-rich country since fall of the Soviet Union

Kazakhstan’s president has announced his retirement after nearly 30 years as leader of the central Asian nation – but he will likely remain a power behind the throne, analysts said, as he retains key posts in Kazakhstan’s military and political bureaucracy.

Nursultan Nazarbayev has led the oil-rich country since the fall of the Soviet Union, first as its Communist leader and then as president after independence.

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Kazakh police arrest activist who campaigned for human rights in Xinjiang

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Serikjan Bilash, who has fought for victims of China’s Muslim internment camps, detained in Almaty

Kazakh police have arrested an activist who has campaigned for victims of China’s internment camps in Xinjiang, sealing his group’s office and taking its computers.

Serikjan Bilash, who has led a high-profile awareness drive centred on ethnic Kazakh victims of China’s crackdown in the region, was arrested in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty and flown to the capital Astana, his partner told AFP.

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Almaty spills its secrets: lost Soviet art discovered behind wall

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Thanks to the Kazakhstan city’s loss of capital status in the 90s, rare mosaics, sgraffiti and other artworks escaped destruction

When Jama Nurkalieva and a small group of colleagues conducted a site survey of a disused Soviet-era panoramic cinema in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, they had no idea what lay behind the internal plasterboard wall that faces out towards the street – until someone spotted a narrow gap.

As the caretaker shined a light into the darkness behind, the group caught a glimpse of a man’s head. Out came the toolbox and the rest of the artwork was slowly revealed: a Soviet-era sgraffito by the graphic artist Eugeny Sidorkin that had been lost and forgotten for decades.

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Bill Clinton Is Involved in Two Major Uranium Scandals Involving the…

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It is already well known that former President Bill Clinton was right in the middle of the now widely reported criminal Uranium One deal. What isn't well known is that this was the second of two criminal uranium deals involving the former President and the Clinton Foundation.

Trump’s organized crime ties bring blackmail to the White House

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Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks as he stands surrounded by his daughter Ivanka, his son Eric, Eric Trump's wife Lara Yunaska and his wife Melania , during a campaign victory party after rival candidate Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 3, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The words were positively polite, at least for a man convicted of assault and racketeering.

Hillary played favorites with huge number of Clinton Foundation donors

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The shady Lebanese-Nigerian businessman who got Hillary Clinton's State Department to arrange a high-level meeting was only one of a dizzying number of big A donors to the Clinton Foundation to score government favors. The list includes high rollers whose relationships with the Clintons made them even richer; countries with dubious human-rights records; and companies looking to grease the skids to get an edge on the competition.