Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Younger generations of Central Asian citizens are demanding more from their governments, but their leaders continue to cling to a rapidly eroding status quo.
Kazakhstanis will vote for a new president on June 9. The election was supposed to be a smooth transition to a handpicked, pliant successor, not an open contest. But things are not going as originally planned.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has resigned after nearly three decades. But the succession process appears to have just started, and it won’t be the last we will see of his influence.
Kazakhstan’s president has fired the government over what he called its failure to shore up crumbling living standards. Will it be enough to satisfy his citizens’ demands?
A tragic house fire that killed five sisters in Astana epitomizes many of Kazakhstan’s social problems, as well as the widening gap between the government and the governed.
Brighter prospects for Central Asian integration come amid political and economic liberalization in Uzbekistan, hardening authoritarianism elsewhere in the region, widespread economic distress, and China’s growing influence—the five major trends that marked Central Asia in 2018.