Nazarbayev, Nursultan A
Amid Crisis, Kazakhstan’s Leader Chose His Path: Embrace Russia
MOSCOW — The embattled president of Kazakhstan has the pedigree of an international technocrat. The son of prominent intellectuals, he studied in Moscow at a premier academy for diplomats, and later worked in the Soviet Embassy in Beijing. He served as a key adviser to the strongman who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country as […]
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Behind Kazakhstan Unrest, the ‘Strongman’s Dilemma’
Kazakhstan’s explosion into unrest this week presents a stark warning to the strongman autocrats of the world: Leaving office is perilous. Since the Cold War’s end, a staggering 70 percent of governments headed by strongmen collapsed after the ruler departed, according to one data set. The trend holds whether the leader leaves voluntarily or involuntarily, […]
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Kazakhstan Protests Lead President to Crack Down: ‘Fire Without Warning’
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The authoritarian leader of Kazakhstan said Friday that he had authorized the nation’s security forces to “fire without warning” as the government moved to bring an end to two days of chaos and violence after peaceful protests descended into scenes of anarchy. “We hear calls from abroad for the parties to negotiate […]
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In Kazakhstan, Putin Again Seizes on Unrest to Try to Expand Influence
Long adept at stoking unrest in the West, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent troops to the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan on Thursday to try to extinguish the latest in a series of dangerous fires to engulf the lands of the former Soviet Union, territory that Moscow views as its own sphere of […]
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Kazakhstan Declares State of Emergency as Protests Over Fuel Prices Spread
MOSCOW — The president of Kazakhstan declared a two-week state of emergency in two regions of the Central Asian country early Wednesday after nationwide protests erupted over rising fuel prices. In Almaty, the country’s largest city, police fired tear gas and stun grenades at crowds of thousands of people who had refused to disperse, as […]
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