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• Independence

Kazakhstan Celebrates its Independence Day

By Aigerim Ospanova in Opinions on 16 December 2020

Kazakhstan is celebrating its main national holiday – Independence Day when some 29 years ago, the country became a sovereign state after the Supreme Council adopted a law on the state independence of Kazakhstan on Dec. 16, 1991. 

Over the years of independence, Kazakhstan has achieved great successes, took a leading position among the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), became a full and active member of the United Nations (UN), and strengthened its cooperation with the most influential international organizations.

Kazakhstan has chosen a phased plan for political reform. In the early years, the country formed a regulatory framework by adopting laws “On Political Parties”, “On Public Associations”, “On Freedom of Religion”, “On the Mass Media” and many others as well as enshrining the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the citizens. The Kazakh leadership in the Central Asian region in advancing the cause of liberal democracy is recognized by the official representatives of many foreign countries and international organizations.

Kazakhstan emerged as an independent state and embarked on the path of post-communist transformations under extremely difficult circumstances. The inherited Soviet economy was in “free fall” and the young independent country faced a serious task of carrying out economic reform and building a new state. The chronic shortage of capital, the destruction of the existing trade network and the difficulty of adapting Soviet enterprises and structures to market conditions led to a deep recession in the economy of Kazakhstan and neighboring countries.

Today, Kazakhstan has taken the lead in terms of the pace of reforms and the dynamics of economic development, becoming the first CIS member to be granted the status of a country with a market economy and an investment grade rating. The Kazakh government is implementing the program of accelerated industrial and innovative development in the state. 

In 2018, on the initiative of the First President, the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) began its work. English law now applies on its territory. The center was created to attract investments to the country.

During its period of independence, Kazakhstan has managed to attract more than $300 billion of foreign investment. The largest investors are the Netherlands, United States, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, Belgium and Canada.

International relations

Kazakhstan is among the safest countries in the world according to the nuclear security rating metric. This was facilitated by the decree of the First President on the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on Aug. 29, 1991. Since independence, the country has become a member of authoritative and influential international organizations. Among them are the United Nations (UN), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). 

Kazakhstan became the first country in the Central Asian region, where the OSCE summit was held in 2010. The sixth OSCE Summit was held in 1999 in Istanbul. The event strengthened the authority of the country and the First President in the international arena.

Dialogue between the leaders of the world and traditional religions, built based on trust and mutual understanding, opened broader prospects for international cooperation, and this was facilitated by the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. The most important goal of the forum was to overcome negative trends such as violence, religious extremism and terrorism.

Kazakhstan is interested in world peace and stability in the region and has taken significant steps in this direction. One need only recall the Astana peace process to resolve the Syrian crisis, when the warring parties sat down at the negotiating table.

One of the most important areas, besides the economy, transport and energy, is our cultural community. In 1995, on the initiative of Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan was created, aimed at ensuring social and political harmony in the country. The authority of the organization is recognized internationally.

Spiritual culture

The Rukhani Zhangyru (Modernization of Kazakhstan’s Identity) program was developed based on the provisions of the article of the Kazakh President “The course towards future: Modernization of public consciousness”, which was published Apr. 12, 2017. It outlines the main goals of the nation for the new historical period – to preserve and increase spiritual and cultural values as well as to join the top 30 developed states of the world in development.

Thus, over the years of independence, Kazakhstan has become one of the stable and dynamically developing states. Kazakhstan seeks to create a strong democratic state with a diversified economy, and ensure the observance of the rights and freedoms of the citizens.

Analyzing the efforts and achievements of Kazakhstan, we can say with confidence that our state has chosen the strategically correct path. Currently, Kazakhstan is considered a regional leader and strives to take its rightful place among the top 30 states with the most competitive economies.

The author is Aigerim Ospanova, PhD, Professor, head of Department of Regional Studies of Faculty of International Relations at Gumilyov Eurasian National University.

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30th Anniversary of Independence: Overview of Kazakhstan’s Key Achievements

BY  AIMAN ZHUSSUPOVA   in   KAZAKHSTAN’S INDEPENDENCE: 30 YEARS ,  OP-ED   on  8 FEBRUARY 2021

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence. During this period, the country has undergone transformations in all spheres of life.

One of the most significant achievements of the country is the policy in the field of interethnic relations, laid down by First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. The ethno-confessional policy of the country is of particular importance in the context of polyethnicity and the confessional heterogeneity of Kazakh society. 

According to the Kazakh Committee on Statistics, at the beginning of January 2020, Kazakhs accounted for 68.5 percent and other ethnic groups for 31.5 percent of the population. In this context, the preservation of interethnic harmony and the formation of civil identity are basic conditions essential for the country.

The key ideas of ethnopolitics were formulated at the dawn of independence of Kazakhstan in May 1993 by Nazarbayev. They are based on the preservation of interethnic harmony, ethnic diversity, equality of citizens regardless of ethnic affiliation as well as instruction in proper patriotism. It was emphasized that patriotic education implies the formation of a clear self-determination and self-identification for each citizen.

In the article “Plan of the Nation – The Path to the Kazakh Dream” published in 2016, Nazarbayev reiterated that our path is a path of unity and consistent formation of a nation based on a civic identity. Nazarbayev said: “Our aim is to strengthen the common identity and unity of our country via development of Kazakhstan’s society on the principles of united citizenship and the national values incorporated in the Mangilik El (Eternal Nation) on the basis of consolidating our achievements since obtaining independence.” 

Thus, the most important element of Kazakhstan’s policy in the field of interethnic relations is unity through diversity. Moreover, Nazarbayev emphasized that “100 Kazakh ethnic groups have at least 100 special and unique features, which give a unique advantage to our united nation.”

A unique institution, the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK), is also called upon to support and promote interethnic harmony. Today, the importance of the APK’s activities is also increasing due to the growing importance of the regulation of interethnic and interfaith relations in the modern world. 

“Tension and xenophobia are growing everywhere. Noticing the seeds of extremism and suppressing them inside Kazakhstan is our task,” said Nazarbayev. 

The Bolashak (Future), the international educational program, which was launched by Nazarbayev at the dawn of independence in 1993, is also one of the other significant achievements. Over the past period, about 15,000 young Kazakhs have received education in the world’s leading universities. The first graduation at Nazarbayev University took place five years ago. Over the years, the university has already trained about 5,000 graduates. Undoubtedly, these programs can be viewed as real and effective social elevators that enabled the country’s young citizens to realize their potential.

At the same time, education today is a top priority in all developed countries of the world. Ensuring the quality and accessibility of education has always been among the strategic objectives of Kazakhstan. Thus, in 2018, Nazarbayev instructed the government to increase spending on education, science, and healthcare until it reached 10 percent of GDP.

In the context of the country’s achievements, one can note the steps towards the development of new, advanced technologies, including the development of digitalal government reforms, which follow the general world trend as well.

In the field of foreign policy, Kazakhstan has also achieved outstanding success. It should be noted that the country from its very beginning has followed a constructive policy, based on the multi-vector principle, which became the key to fostering a successful dialogue with neighbors at such forums as the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and other forums. 

At the same time, one of the key achievements in the field of foreign policy is the integration of Kazakhstan into international processes, the country’s entry into major international associations, as well as the fact that Kazakhstan is now the recognized locomotive of regional integration in Eurasia.

The author is Aiman Zhussupova, an expert of the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) under the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation.

Kazakhstan at a crossroads – photo essay

Living in Kazakhstan for more than three years, photojournalist Frédéric Noy documented the culture and atmosphere of a turbulent country working to define itself in the shadow of the Soviet Union

S haped in the crucible of central Asia, Kazakhstan , the largest landlocked country in the world, remains for most foreigners a huge void on the map, somewhere between Russia and China. With a surface area five times the size of France, it has long sailed along with history and the great empires.

A landowner, his son and his brother leave the vast plain surrounding Taraz, where kokpar – an ancient equestrian game – was organised. In a trailer attached to the landowner’s old Lada stand his two horses with their heads covered to protect them from the biting evening wind on their way back

From Alexander to Genghis Khan, from the Russian conquest in the 19th century to the integration into the Soviet Union, it has hardly known a period as a nation state, as Vladimir Putin liked to point out perfunctorily in August 2014, a few months after the annexation of Crimea: “The Kazakhs have never had a state,” suggesting that their only way out was to be integrated into the great Russian entity. A notable exception: the autonomy of Alash, from 1917 to 1920, a liberal-nationalist political breathing space between the Tsarist and Soviet authoritarian eras, on a territory roughly corresponding to that of the present republic.

Tourists in the seaside town of Balkhash on the lake of the same name

Cadets walk through Panfilov Park, Almaty, in front of the monument to the legendary 28 Panfilov guardsmen

In the fallow ideological space created by the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, of which ironically it was the last member for four days, Kazakhstan had to construct an alternative discourse of national cohesion, an attempt to define itself in the eyes of the world, but also to claim a distant glorious past, in order to remain definitively master of its destiny.

The Eucharist during Sunday service in the Russian Orthodox Ascension Cathedral, also named Zenkov after its architect, located in Panfilov Park, Almaty. Built between 1904 and 1907, constructed entirely of wood, it was confiscated by the state and transformed into a museum during the Soviet period, becoming a place of orthodox worship again in May 1995, a few years after independence

This is a complicated challenge, since its territory was an open-air laboratory for the industrial, atomic, agricultural, political and social experiments of the Soviet Union, traumatic experiments whose after-effects are still felt in the national psyche. This was an immense challenge for a country whose intellectual elite was strangled by the Stalinist purges and whose communal balance of power in the Soviet Union favoured Slavic groups and Russian speakers.

During a self-defence class at a gym in Almaty, Maria Makarevich, a Kazakh national boxing and kickboxing champion and former bodyguard of wealthy business people, teaches young women how to defend themselves in the event of an attack, including domestic violence, a serious problem in Kazakhstan

At independence, Kazakhs were in the minority in their own homeland. In order to change the demographic balance, a repatriation programme over 25 years (from 1991 to 2015) brought the return of more than 1 million people – about 5% of a population of more than 19 million inhabitants. Most of the exiles were descendants of those who fled the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s to escape repression, forced collectivisation and famine.

Members of Q-Pop band Ninety One warm up in a discreet studio in Almaty before their Saturday night show, during which they write a song in an hour. In the corseted Kazakh society, their appearance has revolutionised gender representation, revolted conservatives and boosted the use of Kazakh in contemporary song

Kazakh snowboarders sit in a cable car that takes them to the Shymbulak ski resort, 2,200 metres high on the outskirts of Almaty

For the 51% of the population born after independence on 16 December 1991, Ninety One is more likely to remind them of of the Q-pop group than the year of independence, although one is named after the other. Since then, contemporary Kazakhstan has been going its own way, incognito, far from the eyes of the west, despite the international fame of the film Borat. It reinvents itself. Connected to the world, trying to forge a modern and hi-tech identity, carrying from its Soviet past an industrial glory, and from its nomadic origins a rural nostalgia.

At the end of the very long and rich dastarkhan (low dining table) set up for the spring festival Nauryz, the women of a village family joke and discuss

The Oralman family of Zukhra Mukanova (wearing a blue scarf), in their living room in the village of Chubarsu, a few kilometres from Shymkent

Oralman are descendants of Kazakhs who fled the Soviet regime from 1920 onwards, Kazakhs in the ethnic sense of the word and mostly living in other central Asian states. Zukhra Mukanova and her daughters moved from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan in 2010. Although she has a residence permit, she has started the process of obtaining citizenship so that her daughters will automatically become Kazakhstani. Aizhan Mukanova, pictured above wearing an orange scarf with her daughter resting on her legs, said: “Sometimes my child gets sick, and I couldn’t go to the doctor. When she was born, we went to Shymkent to do an MRT, all newborns have to do it once every two to three months, but we can’t do it in the public hospital because of a lack of papers. We have to use private doctors.”

For many years, the Aral Sea gave these men no cause for celebration. Fishing died out in the 1980s, after the Soviet government drained the sea to feed cotton fields far upstream. The once colossal Aral shrank to one-tenth of its original volume, becoming a tragic shadow of its former self. Its fish have died, its most successful fishers have left. Thanks to the construction of a dam financed by the World Bank, the northern part of the sea has filled up enough for fish to return

At dawn, off the coast of the village of Tastubek, fishers pull up nets they set the night before

The country built its new capital in the middle of the steppe to prevent the dreaded expansionism of the Russian big brother, and to give new life to the atrophied Aral Sea. A society whose soul is symbolised by kokpar, an ancestral equestrian sport, and whose cultural virtues include opera and ballet. A nation, the cradle of apples, whose subsoil contains 99 periodic elements. An immensity irrigated by the memory of itinerant times and whose umbilical cord remains the train, an artefact if ever there was one of sedentary life. A space whose cardinal points are unknown to each other, while in Almaty, the cultural capital, activists and young protesters electrify the gatherings and nights.

Dozens of young people, activists and members of civil society, sensitive to queer and feminist causes, meet in one of the only two LGBT-friendly nightclubs in Almaty, during a demonstration afterparty

In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s more political, youthful and anti-establishment city, the organisers of the International Women’s Day march greet 1,000 participants

People gather in Republic Square, Almaty, in memory of the victims of the January violence; a group in Almaty protest to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March

Workers clear away rubble and strip the Akimat, Almaty’s monumental city hall, down to its metal structure. As the centre of riots in Kazakhstan earlier this year, it was stormed by a mob and set on fire on 5 January. The burnt-out wreckage was the seat of power in the country’s largest city

Formerly the headquarters of the central committee of the Communist party, inaugurated in 1980, the huge Akimat dominates the city from its elevated position, overlooked by the Ile-Alatau mountains. Its rapid reconstruction is a priority to prove the return of control by the government and the return to normality.

Meat hangs from metal spikes along the aisles of the northern part of the Zelionyj or Green Bazaar in Almaty. As a traditionally nomadic nation, meat and dairy products take up a lot of space in the bazaar. Several aisles are dedicated to horse products. Originally, this place served as a stopover for merchant caravans travelling through central Asia

The name of the country in -stan, so pejorative to Elbasy (Father of the Nation) Nursultan Nazarbayev, that he suggested calling it Kazakh Yeli (Country of the Kazakhs) in 2014. Since 1991, more than 30 years passed largely under his rule. First secretary of the Kazakh Communist party in 1989, he retained the leadership of the country after the fall of the USSR, where no election was ever recognised as free and independent by international observers. He finally handed over the presidency in 2019 to a loyalist, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in a departure that was more formal than real, since he retained a major influence

For a few bucks, an iman leads the prayer for visitors to the huge Akmeshit cave (White Mosque in Kazakh). For security reasons, the visitors are wearing helmets. According to local belief, this is a sacred place that can perform miracles in the lives of visitors who pray or make a wish there. Many of them are women who are unable to have children or people who hope to be cured of an illness. According to legend, women and children took refuge in the underground cave, the entrance to which is invisible above ground, during the wars between the Kazakhs and Dzungars from 1643 to 1756

The subtle mixture of geopolitical invisibility, relative prosperity paid for at the price of a policed authoritarianism and immobile evolution in which Kazakhstan bathed was pulverised last January during disturbances that were as brief as they were bloody. The official death toll of at least 227, including 19 members of the security services, hardly bears witness to the trauma in Kazakh society.

In the waiting hall of a station, a large mosaic commemorates a glorious episode of the fishers of the Aral Sea: their contribution of 14 wagons of fish to famine-ravaged regions during the tumultuous early days of the USSR

A Kazakh couple on their way to Kyzylorda from Almaty (a 23-hour journey). The train remains the mode of transport for the classes less favoured by the economic boom in Kazakhstan. The distances between cities are very long and it takes hours to get from one to the other

The end of an era? In any case, that of the Nazarbayev dynasty. A new chapter? On 16 March 2022, President Tokayev promised extensive political reforms and constitutional changes to move from a “super-presidential” regime to a presidential republic with a “presidential” structure.

During a photoshoot for a Kazakh artist’s project, the actor Almira Tursyn holds a baby saiga, a rare species of Eurasian antelope that lives mainly on the steppes of Kazakhstan. A trained psychologist, she was chosen from 15,000 applicants to play Tomyris, the legendary queen of the steppe.

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Ukraine Strikes More Russian Oil Facilities in a Bid to Disrupt Military Logistics

Analysts say Ukraine is trying to disrupt the Russian military’s logistical routes and combat operations by targeting the facilities that supply fuel for its tanks, ships and fighter jets.

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By Constant Méheut

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukrainian drones struck two oil depots and a refinery across Russia in a 24-hour period, including one deep in Russian territory, officials on both sides said Thursday, as Kyiv presses a campaign aimed at hampering the country’s military operations and putting strain on its most important industry.

Radiy Khabirov, the head of Russia’s Bashkiria region, near Kazakhstan, said a drone hit the Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery , one of the country’s largest, around midday on Thursday, sending plumes of smoke into the sky. The facility is more than 700 miles from the Ukrainian border, in a sign that Ukraine is increasingly capable of striking further into Russia.

An official from Ukraine’s special services, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, said Ukraine was behind the assault. The official said Ukraine was also responsible for two other drone strikes overnight that hit oil depots in Russia’s Krasnodar region, southeast of Ukraine.

The strikes follow some 20 similar attacks since the beginning of the year. Military analysts say they are an attempt by Ukraine to disrupt the Russian military’s logistical routes and combat operations by targeting the facilities that supply fuel for its tanks, ships and planes.

Ukrainian officials also hope the strikes can undermine the Russian energy complex, which is at the core of the country’s economy and war effort — accounting for about a third of Russia’s federal budget revenue — although it is too early to say whether they can have any serious impact.

The United States government has publicly urged Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian oil refineries out of concern that they could affect global oil markets.

But Ukraine has instead doubled down on its strategy. Last month, Ukraine struck Russia’s third-largest refinery , located about 800 miles from its border with Russia. The refinery hit on Thursday is also one of Russia’s biggest, with a capacity to process 10 million metric tons of oil a year, according to Gazprom , its owner.

Mr. Khabirov, the head of the of the Bashkiria region, said the attack did not disrupt the refinery’s operations. He described the strike as “an attempt to discredit our holiday,” in reference to Russia’s commemoration on Wednesday of the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II .

Kyiv’s rationale for these attacks appears to be that by disrupting Russian military logistics, it could buy time for Ukrainian troops on the battlefield, who are outnumbered, undergunned and steadily losing ground to Russian forces.

In recent months, Ukraine has increasingly been relying on asymmetrical tactics to disrupt Russian operations, including sabotage activities against railway infrastructure and ammunition depots.

“It’s no secret that a big army like Russia, with a lot of equipment, consumes a lot of fuel,” said Serhii Kuzan, the chairman of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, an independent research group.

“So the strategy here is very simple: create fuel shortages,” he said, both in the long term by attacking refineries and in the short term by targeting oil depots.

The two oil depots that were hit on Thursday in the Krasnodar region are near Novorossiysk, a major Russian port that is home to part of the Black Sea Fleet. They are also close to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, where the Russian military has stockpiled fuel and ammunition that it funnels to the battlefields in southern Ukraine.

Russian local authorities confirmed that several drones had fallen on the oil depots, starting a fire and damaging several tanks.

The Russian state-run news agency TASS on Thursday blamed Ukraine for the recent attacks on oil facilities.

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s logistical lines and energy system on a much larger scale, with relentless assaults on power facilities and transportation infrastructure. On Wednesday, Russian missiles and drones damaged several power plants across Ukraine, officials said, part of a concerted effort to degrade Ukraine’s energy grid and deepen the hardship for civilians.

Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian state railway operator, has reported several attacks against its railways in recent weeks, including as recently as Wednesday against the Kherson railway station in the south.

Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said last month that his army would increase its attacks on Ukrainian logistical hubs in an effort to disrupt the arrival of American military aid.

On Thursday, Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national electricity company, said that electricity consumption would be limited for industrial companies in the evening, for the second day in a row, as a result of the damage caused by the recent attacks.

The Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil refineries appear to have more than an immediate military objective. They are also seemingly aimed at putting pressure on the Russian economy, experts say.

Damien Ernst, an energy expert and professor at the University of Liege in Belgium, said the strikes have taken more than 10 percent of Russia’s oil-refining capacity off line, temporarily reducing the country’s ability to turn its crude oil into usable products like gasoline, diesel and petrol.

“There are shortages of diesel and petrol in some regions and prices are rising,” said Mr. Ernst. But he added that Russia’s prewar oil refining capacity covered about twice the amount consumed domestically, meaning that gasoline shortages at Russian pumps are a long way off.

Still, Russia increased gasoline imports from neighboring Belarus in March, according to Reuters , and imposed a six-month ban on gasoline exports in March.

Mr. Ernst added that the strikes have had no major effect on international crude oil prices — as the U.S. government feared — because Russia now exports more of its crude oil, including large amounts to India, to compensate for the loss in refining capacity, and because there is currently a surplus of crude oil on international markets.

Writing in Foreign Affairs , three energy and military analysts said on Wednesday that the strikes “can still inflict pain inside Russia” without affecting the economies of Kyiv’s Western partners.

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting.

Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people. More about Constant Méheut

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv, assuring him that American military aid is on its way  at a “challenging time” for the country.

As Moscow seeks more support for its war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin of Russia will visit China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, testing their “no limits” partnership .

Putin replaced his minister of defense , Sergei Shoigu, with the economist Andrei Belousov , shaking up his national security team for the first time since his invasion of Ukraine.

Rebuilding Ukrainian Villages: The people of the Kherson region have slowly rebuilt their livelihoods since Ukraine’s military forced out Russian troops. Now they are bracing for another Russian attack .

Replenishing the Army’s Ranks: Ukraine’s Parliament passed a bill that will allow some convicts to serve in the military  in exchange for the possibility of parole at the end of their service.

Ukraine’s Unidentified Dead: Families of some Ukrainian soldiers say they have spent months trying to get official confirmation of their loved ones’ deaths , adding to their anguish.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .