Category: Kazakhstan

Shrinking space for Kazakhstan’s civil society

     

First, there was a media report hinting at shadowy links between foreign-funded charities and terrorism in Kazakhstan. Then, the taxman came knocking, notes analyst Joanna Lillis. The tax inspections served as… Read more »

Populism’s false promise could ‘reinvigorate liberal democracy’

     

The resurgence of populism has disrupted the post-Cold War political order and raised the prospect of instability in Europe and Eurasia, according to Nations in Transit 2017, the 22nd edition… Read more »

Kazakhstan’s ‘authoritarian lite’ regime hints at cosmetic change

     

Kazakhstan’s leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is the country’s only president since independence — elected five times with 97.5 percent of the vote. Nazarbayev has created a kind of “authoritarian lite” system… Read more »

Civic Freedom Monitor addresses civil society’s challenges

     

The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) today launched the “Civic Freedom Monitor,” a rebranded version of its long-running NGO Law Monitor – widely recognized as the most comprehensive source… Read more »

Succession planning flurry follows Eurasian autocrat’s death

     

The recent death of Uzbekistan’s seemingly perpetual president has drawn fresh attention to the uncertainties of one-man rule elsewhere in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region, writes Freedom House… Read more »

Kazakhstan’s ‘economy first, politics later’ philosophy under strain

     

  Kazakhstan is not a country accustomed to political instability. Nursultan Nazarbayev has enjoyed a quarter century as president of the central Asian nation on the back of rising oil… Read more »

Islam and democracy: What’s the problem?

     

Can Muslim-majority countries strike a balance between faith and democracy? Al Jazeera asks. Or, is there an irreconcilable tension between liberal values and Islamic beliefs? When we discuss political Islam… Read more »

Nations in Transit: Europe & Eurasia – grim portrait of decline, small reasons for hope

     

While economic downturns are threatening the stability of the former Soviet Union’s “entrenched dictatorships,” the migration crisis is fueling populism in Eastern Europe, and reforms in the Balkans are in… Read more »