Articles by Assel Satubaldina

ASTANA – The Election Observation Mission (EOM) of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) published an interim report on Nov. 4 outlining their findings as the mission continues its work, just 12 days before the presidential elections in Kazakhstan.  The mission began its work on Oct. 18 headed by Ambassador Urszula…

ASTANA – The Constitutional Court, which will start functioning on Jan. 1, 2023, will ensure the more effective protection of human rights in Kazakhstan as citizens will be able to appeal directly to the court, said Maulen Ashimbayev, speaker of the Senate, an upper chamber of the Kazakh Parliament.  President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed six laws…

ASTANA – As the election campaign period continues in Kazakhstan until Nov. 18, its focus is primarily on social obligations, said political expert Daniyar Ashimbayev.  “Apparently, there is a certain set of explicitly populist slogans that the electoral headquarters have agreed not to bring up for discussions, such as credit amnesty and the privatization of…

ASTANA – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed into law the constitutional amendments to re-establish the Constitutional Court and expand the powers of the country’s Human Rights Commissioner and the human rights focus of the Prosecutor General, among other laws, at a public ceremony on Nov. 5 at Akorda, reported the presidential press service.  The six laws…

ASTANA – Ahead of the presidential elections in Kazakhstan scheduled for Nov. 20, the country’s youth is ready to head to the polls to vote for their new President. Though public opinion about the upcoming elections diverges, with people still questioning the need for an ahead-of-schedule election, casting a vote remains a civic duty for…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s leading political scientists, public figures and scholars convened on Oct. 31 in Astana to discuss the ongoing political transformation in the country, reforms that aim to fulfill the Just Kazakhstan promise, reported the Kazakh Institute for Strategic Studies organizing an expert discussion. Welcoming the participants, Yerkin Tukumov, director of the institute, proposed…

ASTANA – The upcoming presidential elections in Kazakhstan, scheduled for Nov. 20, will be taking place in a completely new format, said the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) observer mission Urszula Gacek in an Oct. 27 interview given to the Jibek…

2022 has been an intense year for Kazakhstan. Beginning tragically as it did in January, the Nov. 20 presidential elections seem to be the year’s culmination in what officials are now describing as the “reset of the political system.”  The public sentiment around the elections diverges. Some expect change for the better from the elections,…

ASTANA – Hela Cheikhrouhou, International Financial Corporation (IFC) Regional Vice President for the Middle East, Central Asia, Türkiye, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, reaffirmed the commitment to deepening IFC support to Kazakhstan towards sustainable development through increased private sector investments in her first visit to Kazakhstan on Oct. 3-4. In an interview with The Astana Times, Cheikhrouhou…

ASTANA – The Zhetisu regional court in Taldykorgan came out with a decision on Oct. 20 to amend a punitive measure for policeman Aidyn Kenzhebayev, accused of torture with a hot steam iron against a detainee involved in the January unrest, from house arrest to detention, Asem Tusupova, a lawyer at the Qantar Center for…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) registered six candidates to qualify for the country’s Nov. 20 presidential election.  Registration closed Oct. 21 and six candidates, incumbent Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Meiram Kazhyken, Zhiguli Dairabayev, Karakat Abden, Saltanat Tursynbekova and Nurlan Auesbaev, will campaign until Nov. 18 for election to the country’s highest office. All presidential nominees…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s State Counselor Erlan Karin addressed an expert forum on Oct. 18, titled Kazakhstan’s Political Transformation: Trends and Prospects, organized by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies, reported the Akorda press service.  Karin emphasized that the current electoral process stems from the constitutional reform initiated by the June 5 national referendum. He spoke…

ASTANA – Kazakh and foreign companies signed US$1.5 billion in agreements on Oct. 19 at the Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable that brought together over 500 participants, including government officials and top international executives, to explore investment prospects together. Agreements covered the fields of metallurgy, petrochemistry and gas processing, transport and logistics, production of building materials,…

ASTANA – Nearly $35 billion have been invested in Kazakhstan’s transport sector over the past five years, with 2,500 kilometers of new railways being built, said Deputy Chair of the Kazakh Transport Committee Kassym Tilepov at a plenary session during the fifth Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable on Oct. 19 in Astana.  At a time when…

ASTANA – Almost a month is left before the presidential elections in Kazakhstan, scheduled for Nov. 20. Experts and the public continue to debate the elections and the electoral process, with scholars generally agreeing on the growing need for change in the country, highly demanded by the public, and hoping that elections can bring about…

ASTANA – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdymukhamedov during his state visit to Kazakhstan, marking the historic significance of the visit in the bilateral cooperation between the two countries, reported the presidential press service.  Berdymukhamedov arrived on a state visit on Oct. 14 to attend the meeting of heads of the Commonwealth of…

ASTANA – Three candidates nominated to run in the presidential elections in Kazakhstan have been withdrawn from the registration by the Central Election Commission with all of them lacking the required experience in public service, the CEC announced on Oct. 13.  Khayrulla Gabzhalilov, Talgat Yergaliyev, and Fatima Bizakova do not meet the requirements set out…

ASTANA – Five candidates have been registered by the Central Election Commission (CEC) to run for the presidential elections on Nov. 20, while verification and approval of seven more candidates are pending at the time of writing.  The period for nomination of candidates closed on Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for…

ASTANA – South Korea and Kazakhstan have gone through an unchartered path together, but now, 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the bilateral ties are at a mature age, said South Korean Ambassador to Kazakhstan Koo Hong-seok in an interview with The Astana Times. “The past 30 years have been a period when…

ASTANA – The choice of where one can fly from Kazakhstan is steadily expanding, as countries worldwide continue to relax COVID-19-related restrictions, sending a signal that the world is ready to return to normal after more than two years of strict measures to address the global pandemic. Every week, nearly 489 flights carry people from…

ASTANA  – Digital Nomads, a group of more than 400 IT professionals born in Kazakhstan but now spanning across the world, met on Sept. 21 with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev when he visited New York. What many would call a lifetime opportunity was also a chance for the group to explain their effort to develop a…

ASTANA – The Kazakh capital of Astana hosted the presentation of the Kazakh language edition of the book “Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb” written by prominent nuclear non-proliferation expert Togzhan Kassenova on Sept. 29. It tells the story of how Kazakhstan navigated through multiple challenges after the collapse of the Soviet Union…

ASTANA – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met on Sept. 28 with heads of technological and IT companies who arrived in Astana to attend the two-day Digital Bridge Forum, a key event with a program featuring some of the biggest names in the IT industry, reported the presidential press service. Organized this year under the theme Central…

ASTANA  –  The Turkistan Region has witnessed a 1.5-fold increase in industry and agriculture since 2019, said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during his meeting with the region’s public on Sept. 27, reported the presidential press service.  The Turkistan Region located in southern Kazakhstan near the Syr Darya River boasts more than 1,500 years of rich history.…

ASTANA – The success of social reforms in Kazakhstan is contingent upon its ability to reform the broader management system and key state institutions. That is one of the conclusions made by Albert Barro, a project associate at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, and Svante E. Cornell, director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road…