Casio Cisar writes:

Duvanov was holding an unsanctioned protest against what he calls the ‘Turkmenbashizma’ of Kazakhstan. Earlier in the day Duvanov posted a statement on kub.kz, in which he argued that the recent constitutional reforms are nothing but political deceit. Duvanov argues that the recent so-called democratic political reforms are, if anything, to the contrary and represent “no more than the next step in strengthening the personal authority of Nazarbaev”.

Not many people showed up at the protests:

Around 40-50 people turned up for the protest. They were, however, met by at least half as many police and assorted plain clothes KNB officers. After twenty minutes, and much discussion with police officers, Duvanov was forcibly pushed into a waiting bus where he was taken off to prison.

Casio Cisar senses the atmosphere in Almaty:

Currently in Almaty, there is a palatable sense in the air that within the ruling elite ‘something is happening’, but what it means and where it will lead is unknown.

Arthur comments:

It certainly appears from all the action online that something big is going down in Almaty. Interestingly, though, as I live very, very far from Almaty, I have heard practically no discussion about any of these topics.

Last night I asked a usually very-informed young man for his opinion… and he didn’t even know anything was happening. Perhaps because he is an ethnic Russian, and this whole drama seems to be taking place within the Kazakh community, who, after all, form nearly the entire ruling class.

Anyway, I am surprised that even 40 people would show up at a rally.

Kazis Toguzbayev posted a photo report of the protests. On some of the photos he sees the plain clothed policemen or special services agents and he shows the arrest of Sergey Duvanov as he was dragged into police car.
Serikoff commented:

I looked at it and I cried, I read and I laughed, and then cried and laughed again! The sad and the funny all mixed together, just as democracy and the Turkmenbashism did… Thank you, Kazeke!

Neizvestnyi:

It's good that it is neither 37 nor 68, and nor 86 now! It is all civilized, gentlemen and comrades, this is how the CIVIL SOCIETY starts - from the individuals on the square, not on the recommendation of some state commissions and legislative committees. The initiatives comes from the bottom, from the people themselves.

Tastak:

Yesterday the news from the republic Square did not appear on channel 31. (…) There was a dialog between a female journalist who was preparing the report about the protests. Her manager said: We will not air this material (this conversation was eavesdropped accidentally, cited by memory). Journalist: Why? Manager: Just that. Journalist: Let's do it. There are some super shots. The news is interesting. Manager: It won't work. The ban from above. They stressed the scandal with Aliev and asked not to interfere with the serious politics. These amendments are like a sacred cow. So it's better to avoid showing any criticism. Journalist: It's a pity. We came here in vain.

Bureau:

Excellent report. It is clear without any text that the OSCE should not let us closer than within a gunshot. I wonder if there is a casting for the camera people from the secret services or something? it is difficult to imagine that so many identical faces without a trace of intellect would gather together in one place accidentally.

sara:

Does anyone know if Duvanov is out yet? What is the charge? His mobile does not answer… (…) I am curious, will it repeat if someone comes out to “walk around” the square every day? Every day the same thing? I know one thing: those who ordered to arrest Sergey are not too bright. So what, a person came out to speak to the journalists. If they didn't do what they did, everyone would go home quietly, and it wouldn't have been possible to have this brilliant photo report!

STauzhanov:

… I am “for” “Kyrgyzstan” in Kazakhstan.

Alexandr-Kargapolcev:

You are “for” “Kyrgyzstan” in Kazakhstan, I didn't see you holding such a poster yesterday!

MERZKYI:

Why make Duvanov, a person without any intellect, an erudition or a literary talent, into a hero? Everyone knows that he just works for the grants and nothing more. By the way, his friends from the “Spartakus” [gay club in Almaty] were waiting for him yesterday.

Wrath:

Duvanov is at least doing something while we sit comfortably in our chairs and chew in front of the computer screens. “Everyone knows that he just works for the grants and nothing more.” - this reminds me of a bearded guy from “Odnako” program. He also liked saying: “everyone knows”… “it is clear to everyone”… “we all know”, etc. He liked speaking on behalf of the whole nation, you know…

See the photo report by Kazis Toguzbaev - here.
And another one by Valeri Surganov - here.

LJ user yasharbek writes:

Nazarbayev for life. I'm in shock. A new Turkmenbashi :) I always used to say that the most democratic country in the whole CIS is Kyrgyzstan. The rest have a sort of medieval monarchy.

On the other hand, I do understand why it cannot be otherwise in Central Asia. The politicians are inexperienced in foreign policy. Maybe I am not the one to speak. But it is visible. Congratulations to Russia on good politics in the last days (the hydrocarbons).

mashenzia writes:

Today I was woken up by a hectic phone call: “Nazarbayev! Nazarbayev!”.
Nazarbayev did not shy away. But this is neither an extension of the duties, not a maniac will for power, but a result of internal fights we don't know about. It is a symbolic gesture, possibly, a declaration of war. He probably doesn't think about the forth term. Though maybe he looked at Berdymukhammedov this weekend and got jealous…

It is surprising how this was announced on Khabar - the message was blurred, boring, it was not the news of the day (the main news was the Israeli strikes even after parliament voted). Those who do write about it, even the opposition media are doing it unwillingly and without much moralism.

megakhuimyak thinks that this would prevent Kazakhstan from becoming the OSCE chairman.

Russian blogger kroopkin comments: Congratulations on a life-long term… Now it is interesting to see the “totalitarization” of the country…

megakhuimyak: The thing is that he can choose to run, or not. There are different tendencies here - the increase of the role of the parties and at the same time the strengthening of the president's real power.

sarimov: You have to have a f… fantasy to find a space in the constitution to increase your powers. The strife for perfection is never ending!

sibariana: We only have to make Putin life-long - and we'll be friends forever. The presidents will be, for sure. And then there is also eternal Fidel.

LJ user Sarimov is emotional:

Bastards! They decided the fate of the whole country in just 17 minutes!.. The unfortunate amendments came yesterday; 84 deputies of the Senate and the Mazhilis voted “for”. Mostly those who were “for” were from Nurotan. The wording is plain simple: “the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan is not limited with the two terms rule”. The motive is funny: taking into account his historical role in political and socio-economic reforms and to let him finish what he started.

Today two people voted against, one abstained. As far as I know, Bulat Abishev was against (this is for sure). Another one was either Amalbek Tshan, or Tokhtar Aubakirov…

(…)

The discussion of the whole package of the amendments and the voting only took 17 minutes!

Kyrgyz blogger azzzik reflects on the news from the neighbors:

How many years did we moan about our “pocket” parliament, that it can adopt the laws and change the constitution as the president desires. Here we go with the Kazakhstan's example :)

The Constitution of Kazakhstan has a new amendment, according to which the first president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, can run for presidential elections unlimited number of times.

The Kazakhs might be right - a person who did so much for the country (or NN thinks so himself), can afford it.

Now it is important not to cross this thin line, after which you can become an analogy of Turkmenbashi, the eternal president of Turkmenistan.

P.S. Our Akayev either didn't manage to reach this point or he didn't want to.

The 101almatinec community is busy discussing the news, LJ user dass writes: Who is good at politics? Is Nazarbayev forever now?

zerlegmuur: Nope. Only for life…

pacifisttt: It's horrible.

dass: Why?

pacifisttt: Because I don't want to live in a backward country with a life-long monarchy and have absolutely no freedom of choice. Because I don't like when a corrupt and shameless person has a power, and he doesn't even think it is necessary to hide his greed and his longing for power. Because I don't want my children to live in such a country. Because then we shouldn't have laughed at Turkmenistan. We are going towards it. We'll rename Almaty into Nursultan city.

dass: You want to live in a legal state? They say there you have to be responsible for words like “corrupt and shameless” - in court.

pacifisttt: And you don't have to be responsible for thefts? For murders?

dass: Surely.

pacifisttt: Well, I'd like to try living in such a state.

voronxxi: I am afraid you are not lucky then… the whole world is like that. The countries differ only how the corruption is organised there, and some are better at presenting themselves … KZ is not so bad! At least, you still don't have to eat the genetically modified food, your children are not fed with the toxic pills against the syndrome of under-development, if they - children - do not want to accept that the families of two dads are no good…

chernyi_sobak: Interesting, does he steal from your own pocket? And overall, I am just interested, does anyone prevent you from working? Are you discriminated on sexual or national grounds? You don't have a right to leave the country?..

If you wanna live better, work better. Cause everyone is used to sitting on the benches and chatting about “how we have so much oil in Kazakhstan, we should live like in Emirates and have the servants”…

pacifisttt: Yes. You pay the taxes, they buy yachts. I am often harassed on the grounds of nationality. I cannot make a career in state bodies with my surname. They are bringing me the papers from the government in a language I don't understand and they don't want to translate. I can keep listing. You know, I have other interests, besides eating and going to the toilet. That is why I am not satisfied with the level of culture in this country, the level of self-consciousness, I don't like when they lie looking into my eyes, without even blinking. Not everything is measured in money.

Q: What is a blog and citizens’ journalism for you?
Blog is a hobby that became a functional tool; a simple personal page, now it’s the means to express my opinion and find the like-minded people. I personally think that the citizens’ journalism is one of the ways to start the discussion on certain things, to express your opinion, to make the blogosphere interested and provoke it to discuss the issues of social importance.

Q: What topics are you interested it, how do you choose what to write about?
I am interested in topics, which, as I think, can make a precedent and show a tendency for overall development of the society. It includes politics, democracy, society, business. At the same time I like organizing “flash-mobs” sometimes and post fun surveys, humor and the news of show-business. I have one simple principle – I write about things that I am interested in today.

Q: What does the audience mean for you, do you have any goals when you write about politics and social issues, are you trying to attract people’s attention, appeal to them, propagate something or create a feeling of a community?
To be honest with you, I don’t see blog as a propaganda tool – not because it cannot be one at all, but because it cannot be one in Kazakhstan. There are other channels for that, the more effective ones, and blog is just one pleasant but not irreplaceable addition to them. So far.

Q: I remember that Irina Yasina (Open Russia) said at the blogging conference in Moscow that the protest in Russia goes online, in the digital space, because people are afraid to go protest on the streets. You did not agree with her, why?
Transferring the protest online is a big achievement of the current Kremlin regime. Russia has developed accessible internet, and flourishing of the “virtual opposition” coincided with the legislative restrictions on peaceful assembly, worsening of the situation with the freedom of speech on TV, suppressing of the activities of youth radical and democratic organizations. As a result, the regime got a “protest” and “freedom of speech” in blogs, i.e. the situation, when everyone feels busy – the activists feel they are useful for a society, when they update their blogs; their readers feel they are informed citizens; and the government is calm because they know that not many people will come out to protest. Those who do come, will be brutally suppressed by the police, this will be reported in great details and with photos by the bloggers-activists and the next time there will be even less people. Besides, the “protest” in blogosphere is quite easy to manage – some people think that memes widely discussed in Russian blogosphere, were created by the special services to distract people’s attention from other, more important issues (for instance, “preved”, Putin kissing a boy’s belly, “pervonah”, etc).

Q: Who is your audience?
The readers of my blog are the office youth, artists, journalists, students and Kazakhstanis who live abroad.

Q: Do you think the law enforcement agencies take interest in you? Do you risk when you publish articles about corruption in Kazakhstan, or authoritarianism?
I don’t think there is a serious risk, but I am sure the special services take interest in me and they know my identity. Several times I received provocative messages – not threats, but quite unpleasant messages, which pushed me into publishing a disclaimer on my blog and revealing my identity. Publicity is one of the means of protection.

Q: Do you think it is ok to earn by blogging?
I think that any legal means of earning money is normal, and if this money is earned by being creative, I especially do not see any problem.

Q: What is the state of the citizens’ journalism in Kazakhstan now?
Citizens’ journalism, in my opinion, is something that does not yet exist in my country. People do not yet feel a creative part of the Net. In general, the state of the citizens’ journalism in Kazakhstan reflects the level of people’s civic consciousness, and the quality of the traditional journalism.

The future of the Internet, blogs and citizens’ journalism in Kazakhstan will depend – in addition to technical things like the access to high-speed Internet – on the development of society, on the relations between the government and the people. It is still difficult to access the prospects of these relations, therefore, it is difficult to answer whether the trials of journalists will continue or whether the atmosphere will be freer.

Q: How can international organizations help improve the situation with the freedom of speech in Kazakhstan?
The international organizations do a lot to promote freedom of speech in my country – the international NGOs speak against the negative tendencies in legal reforms, and the OSCE regularly consults on current problems. However, all measures have either the function of the “good wishes” or recommendations, which are not even necessary to observe. The West cannot influence anything in Kazakhstan being afraid to lose any alternative to Russian energy resources.

Q: What is blog and citizen journalism for you?
A: It’s a possibility of free self-realization.

Q: Why did you decide to write the articles, which, as you might have known, will get you in trouble?
A: In this case not my mind, but my feelings lead me. I would not have been able to exist if I did not write and upload these articles. Not writing them would be worse than being punished for it. In other words, I could not have been silent.

Q: What topics are you most interested in, how do you choose what to write about?
A: I quite like philosophical topics, like the religions and issues of ethnicity. Unfortunately, the Kazakhstani publications do not yet accept the conceptual and reasonable discussion on these topics. In my case I could say that my topics have chosen me. Because I have soul as well, and it cannot accept and not answer to what is going on. I personally felt that when Altynbek Sarsenbayev (Kazakhstani opposition politician) was murdered and when the authorities tried to hide the truth about his murder, I was being murdered too. I felt like I was being killed too – though I am alive, I felt like I was being buried alive.

Q: Do you think your case has helped to attract the attention to the freedom of speech in Kazakhstan?
A: I didn’t have this purpose, but it happened. I found more than 160 thousand (!) documents with my name in the Internet. I wouldn’t have been able to organize such an promotion if I wanted to! Most publications were about the persecution for what I have written. The tone was sympathizing, so I concluded that I managed to attract the attention to the state of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan. Besides, the OSCE has addressed the minister of foreign affairs in Kazakhstan Marat Tazhin. It said that the norm of the law, which envisages the criminal punishment for an assault on honor and dignity of the president was an anachronism. The US State Department also included my case into its annual report on human rights.

Q: Did local and international NGOs and civic initiatives help you during your trial?
A: Yes! The international fund for freedom of speech “Adil Soz” found the means to pay for a professional lawyer who defended me. I wouldn’t simply have such means! Besides, the president of this fund Tamara Kaleeva was one of my public defenders during the trial. Other public defenders were the president of the foundation “Journalists at risk” Rozlana Taukina, Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, leader of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, a party that is not registered. Our justice system depends on the executive, so my professional lawyer could do almost nothing. Thus, despite all the legal arguments from my defense, I could not have escaped the conviction. I think that the public defenders have done the most.

Q: What lessons have you learned from this case, have you changed your opinion about the state bodies, the courts, the possibilities of the Internet, the Kazakhstani community of journalists?
A: Lesson number one – you have to be careful about what you write if you want to escape the punishment by the repressive state bodies. Lesson number two – if you cannot help writing, you have to write, despite the threat of the punishment, even a criminal one. As for the state bodies, they are the same as they used to be in our totalitarian past: the Committee of National Security, prosecutor’s office, and, as I understand, the administration of the president do the monitoring of the press (do an ideological surveillance), the prosecutor and the courts finish what the other start. I am confident that my case was not only political, but also ideological. During the trial the prosecutor and the judge were asking questions, but could not listen to my answers. They asked: “What (criminal) intentions did you have when you wrote your articles?”. I answered that my main motive was that I don’t accept the immoral behavior of the president Nazarbayev, and I was trying to prove that he was immoral. The prosecutor and the judge seemed like they did not want to hear, but they could not stop me from talking.

As for the journalists, I myself was the main provider of the information about my trial. For instance, the “Svoboda Slova” (Freedom of Speech) newspaper didn’t say anything about my trial. On the other hand, the foundation for the protection of freedom of speech “Adil Soz”, the “Journalists at Risk” fund, “Respublika” newspaper and TV “31 channel” have done a lot to highlight my trial.

Q: What is the state of the citizen journalism in Kazakhstan? Are there many people, non-professional journalists ready to write in the Internet about political and social issues?
A: Yes, surprisingly, there are many people like that. However, they are not yet ready to do it for a simple reason – the lack of the skills to work in the Internet, especially, to work with blogs. The existing Internet media are a barrier for them as much as print media.

Q: What do you think is the future of the Internet, blogs and citizen media in Kazakhstan? Will there be more trials of the journalists, will there be legislative restrictions, censorship as in China or the atmosphere will be freer and there will be more people active online as in Russia?
A: For instance, KUB.kz (political blog, where Kazis published) is administered from Paris. It saves it from the persecution by the Kazakhstani authorities. But I think that the number of blogs will grow in Kazakhstan anyway. The number of persecuted journalists will grow as well. The current policies on nationalities can lead to another huge outflow of Russian-speaking population from Kazakhstan. Forced transfer of bookkeeping to Kazakh can negatively affect the number of active and free journalists. So it is difficult to say exactly what scenario will Kazakhstan follow the Chinese or the Russian.

Q: How did your family react to the process?
A: I always did what I wanted to do. I feel the most free in political journalism. My family was worried for me at the start. But they got used to my activities with years. And they even learned to look at the social processes as I do. That is why none of my relatives panicked when the KNB (Committee for National Security) started two criminal cases against me. Moreover, my wife told me when I was going to the court: “Victory or defeat! I am not going to the trial. This is not my problem. Not even yours! The government has created this problem. They should sort it out now”. At the same time, she packed my bag with warm clothes and biscuits.

Q: How do you imagine the future of the Internet in Kazakhstan?
A: Free! Kazakhs in the 21 century have a chance to get themselves out of this slump through the Internet. The flat, evolutionary way of growth in the economy and population will not solve the problem of Kazakhstani – not only Kazakh – society. We need a qualitative move forward. And the Internet provides this historical chance for Kazakhstanis, which we should use for sure.

Session on freedom of speech

Russia has a vibrant community of bloggers on Livejournal platform. Recently, a group of volunteers started publishing the offline journal “Live Journal“, realising that the conversations online are too important to be ignored. “LiveJournal”, which republishes posts from LiveJournal bloggers, is distributed free of charge in Moscow cafés, and is soon to reach the regions.

Blogs help shed light to events not covered in official media and challenge perceptions about Russia built by the mainstream media. But there is also a lack of information within the country itself, compounded by differences in Internet penetration and uneven coverage of events. As one of the organizers of the conference, Irina Yasina, of the Club of Regional Journalists “Iz Pervyh Ust”, put it, “Information in Russia is only available to those who are not lazy to look for it. The majority are in a deep sleep, which is strengthened by Russian television, a picture reminiscent of Brezhnev’s times”.

Continuing her speech on whether Russia needs citizen journalism, Irina said that, for her, the blogosphere is a reflection of citizen participation. If people write blogs, they are concerned with what is going on around them. Russian civil society is scared to go and protest on the streets, and thinks it is dangerous to deal with people in uniform. It is not possible for them to remain quiet, though – thus, the protest is going on in blogs and civic media.

Dmitry Peskov, Director of the Center for Internet Policy, delivered his welcome speech, noting that the University of International Relations decided to convene this conference as blogs can already be considered part of international relations. Four or five years ago, when the first bloggers appeared in Russia, the IT administrators at the universities used to block access to Livejournal. Now, however, there is a need to explain the positive side of the blogosphere. The Centre for Internet Policy deals with practical policy issues, research on the Internet for private and state companies, and teaching. Last year, MGIMO took part in a competition for innovations in universities, and won 990 million rubles for their project, participative University 2.0.

Peskov said something that I has also come there to say - that there is a market for bloggers writing in English from Russia: “You should not just copy the existing schemes but look for new things, to experiment and build from the future, not giving way to old habits.” Some people in the audience were not so optimistic when referring to digital divide between major Russian cities and the regions. Peskov believed, however, in the state's plans to realize its plan to providing Internet access in schools, and connect each village within 5 years. MGIMO has a lead in web innovations: it is, for example, using Creative Commons licensing, which was translated to Russian, but does not yet have legal force in Russia.

Evgeny Morozov, TOL, speaking at the last session on the future of new media

A session on Freedom of Speech in the Russian Segment of Internet was organized for regional journalists, who shared their experience with the government's limits on online activities in order to better respond to such problems. Mikhail Afanasiev, editor of the web site “Novy Fokus” (”New Focus”), Boris Surganov (Zyryane.ru), Dmitri Kolbasin, and Irina Khrunova, a lawyer from the human rights organisation “Agora”, spoke at the session. There is not much regulation on Internet media, thus the authorities are not consistent with their restriction measures, and when online journalists get sued, most often it is for insulting the honor and dignity of officials (Criminal Code).

Mikhail Afanasev mentioned one case where one web site was “confiscated” by the state as a “tool for committing crime”. (It is still being published, with just one letter changed in its name). Some sites are punished for failing to register as mass media, others for doing just that. Citizen media sites, in particular, new but rapidly developing in Russia, are currently in a legal limbo: there is a need for a legal document that would regulate citizen media. The lawyer said that it is up to journalists to take the initiative, to urge the government to draft regulations before the state drafts them without consulting them.

My Global Voices presentation, with slides on new media kindly provided by Rebecca and Ethan, was part of the afternoon session. It was one of the three sessions: the others were on Realno.ingo, and on media and blogs by neweurasia’s Peter Leonard (now working in The Moscow Times). About 30 people attended Global Voices/neweurasia presentation, where I spoke about the development of citizen media in the West, the creation (Ethan's media attention map!) and structure of GV, examples of voices we are covering (e.g. Salam Pax and Mahmood Den) and project Lingua in Russian.

Among the questions the audience asked about GV were ones about the organizational structure and financing of the site, the attribution policy and the range of topics we cover. The day ended with a discussion about the future of citizen media, where an attempt was made to address questions such as “Is it okay to earn money by blogging?” and “Will there be any newspapers left in several years from now?” The final conclusion was that both media and blogs win from cooperating with each other. The cycle from blogs to media and back to discussion in blogs improves reporting: professional journalism will not become redundant, whereas blogging will become more professional.

On Beauty

Slavoyara, a blogger and photographer from Pavlodar, has won the title of the most beautiful woman among the owners of Livejournal in a competition organised by blogger megakhuimyak. Congratulations!

She writes (RUS):

I am strict when in comes to assessing a woman's beauty: yes, there are physically attractive and non-attractive women. But this is not a criterion for assessing personality… Beauty is just a promise of happiness, as someone said.

On Work

Photo by Kamneed, from People at Work series

There are 2.247 legal migrants from Kazakhstan in the Czech Republic. Leila of neweurasia met a girl, whose family does not comprise the statistics: migrants from Taraz in the South of Kazakhstan, who preferred illegal work abroad to being at home, in a country, which boasts huge economic development.

On Foreign Husbands

Aksai, the city on oil-fields in Western Kazakhstan, is full of Western workers. Some local girls, according to Aiman, hope to get married to one of them in their longing for a better life:

A girl … was sitting next to me [in a mini-bus]. Like thunder in clear sky she began to chatter with slender voice…: “Foreigners are better than Kazakhs and Russians, they are polite and well mannered, they don’t know how to swear and don’t steal!” To say that I was taken aback isn’t even going to cover it. With astonishment, I was examining her face, and wondering where she came from. I wanted to answer, but she continued: “they even treat women better, than the Soviet men; I wish to marry a foreigner”.

Aiman lists some common myths that surround the foreigners in Kazakhstan, and being married to one herself, Aiman tries to dispel them.

She writes:

For some reason, my relatives decided that I’m getting married to a millionaire and asked him to pay “kalym” (traditional “payment” for a bride) with a helicopter, for grandpa, since he is old and a veteran of World War II and apparently it’s hard for him to take a bus. For you, it may be funny, but it wasn’t funny for my relatives, and especially for my grandpa who really hoped to “sell” his granddaughter for a helicopter. And then I understood that I have to save my future husband from the “claws” of my relatives, or else something bad might happen. When my grandpa found out that he won’t get a helicopter, and that a maximum on what my relatives can count on is a bicycle, they were really upset, and didn’t even try to hide it.

When my aunt found out that a foreigner is coming to visit, she started panicking, and the first question she asked was: “What does he like to eat”. I asked her not to worry about it, and just serve “normal” food. When we came, everybody looked at him like he was some sort of exotic bird or something. Everybody tried to touch and feel him, and what do you expect? It’s the first time they see a live foreigner! They also with curiosity watched him eat foods that were on the table. First thing that my aunt asked me was: “Did you starve him?”

Aiman also writes how Kazakh hospitality proves to be a challenge for an unexperienced foreigner:

My husband didn’t even suspect it was possible to eat, drink and not sleep in such amounts and so often. At first he really liked eating with his hands, say toasts and “cheers”, and just sit there, smile and practice his little knowledge of the Russian language. But just imagine his astonishment when my mom set the table again at 2 o’clock in the morning and once again, they started to say toasts, drink and sing! He was sick a whole week afterwards, from indigestion and a huge amount of vodka.

When Kazakhs and foreigners get really drunk, they can understand each other without a translator. I’ve seen it happen a lot of times, but the funniest time was when my cousins got their brother-in-law really drunk with vodka and beer. When he came home, he could barely stand up, but he could clearly talk and asked me “kal kalai?” (“how are you” in Kazakh) and not waiting for my answer answered himself: “zhaksy!” (“good!”). He also learned a new Russian phrase: “Beer without vodka is wasted money!”

As a word of wisdom to other girls who think life with a foreinger is a paradise, she writes:

There are a lot of myths about foreigners and their lifestyles, and, sadly because of the inability to “see the world” our people look at them as something invincible. There are a lot of stereotypes; a lot of them started a long time ago, at the time of the Soviet Union and you can’t do anything about them. Remembering that girl from the mini-bus, I think about how many young girls coming to Aksay hope to find their happiness with a foreigner, some do, some, find disappointment, and some, like me, understand that in the end it’s important to be happy.”

On Politics

KUB writes about the most influential woman in Kazakhstan: Dariga Nazarbayeva, a daughter of the President (RUS):

Despite the obvious Oriental mentality, there are women in Kazakhstani politics too. The current government has three female ministers. Out of 116 deputies - 10 are women… The most vidid and famous politician is the deputy from the Mazhilis (the lower house of Parliament), Dariga Nazarbayeva.

Nazarbayeva does not miss a chance to underline her “ordinariness”, trying to ignore her status as the “president's daughter”. Though rumour has it, she knows her role in the presidency. Thus, people who know the “behind the scenes” in Astana, say that Dariga managed the election campaign of her father in 2005. In public, she, on behalf of her Asar party, offered all pro-government political parties to create a common coalition to nominate one candidate - Nursultan Nazarbayev.

In the last years they started talking about Dariga as the most likely successor of Nazarbayev in 2012, when his last, according to the Constution, term ends. And though Dariga has repeatedly said that she has no presidential ambitions, more and more often the analysts and even the lobbyists name her as a possible successor. The latter think it is possible that the system of governance would change in a way that all power mechanisms would be held by the Head of the senate. This could be Dariga Nazarbayeva.

On Feminism

LJ user tropical_rat started tutoring for tests of English in Astana, Kazakhstan. He posts his thoughts on feminism and how it is taken in Kazakhstan:

I was talking about feminism with one student and it occurred to me that the highly useful formulation that “feminism is the belief that women are people too” is not accurate. I got grilled on this one; if that's the case then why do anything? Where is the problem? I propose that feminism in fact entails three propositions:

1) Women are people too, and thus entitled to all rights, status, and privileges that every member of society enjoys, including political, social, legal and economic rights.

2) Historically, women have been denied these rights or access to these rights by institutions and/or individuals.

3) This constitutes an injustice which should be addressed.

And it is the last two that many Kazakhstanis have issues getting behind. The 3rd proposition particularly, because what we call injustice, they call the natural order of things.

Photo by Adam Kesher

Blogger Adam Kesher is displeased: the “Stalin's” house next to his own is going to be replaced by a new fancy building. These houses, built before the Second World War (1935-1938) or after (till 1955) are notable for their scale, high ceilings so rare in later Soviet block houses, huge halls and thick walls. They have nice backyards and old-style lifts. Situated mostly in the centre of Almaty, “stalinkas” for a long time represented quality and well-being.

Adam wrote (RUS): “This is my yard, as Americans would say - my “community” - which I want to keep for my children and grandchildren. The construction companies say that the replacement is inevitable. This is not true. Anyone who has been to the countries where people cherish their history and their old districts knows that. I would really like the city authorities to spend a part of the budget to renovate the 1930-1950ss buildings, maybe adding some new details to their facades - mosaic, wall-painting, balconies art nouveau … I must be an idiot.”

What Adam is talking about is a part of a bigger government campaign on demolition of the old houses in the city, which is itself just over 100 years old. The maps, which indicate the districts to be demolished, circulated around for a while, even when they were not made public.

The houses, built at the time when Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party, from 1953 to 1964, are to be destroyed too. The district with lots of “khrushchevkas” is dubbed “The Golden Square”, and each house is marked with a memorial desk about an artist or a writer that used to live there. Its inhabitants went on a hunger strike, as wrote KUB blog (RUS), demanding fair compensation for their flats. After several days of striking and negotiating, the inhabitants of the houses were promised higher compensation and ended their protest.

Kazakhstanis in Afghanistan

On February 1989, the last Soviet troops were deployed from Afghanistan, where the Soviet Union supported Afghanistan's Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government against the Mujahideen insurgents and suffered considerable losses, with hardly any results achieved. Around 22.000 Kazakhstanis took part in this Cold War game, being sent to Afghanistan as conscripts (1.5 years for soldiers and 2 years for officers). 761 people died and were buried in Kazakhstan, 21 dissapeared, according to the Kazakh Military Office's data for 1 January 1990.

neweurasia's Vitaly Mantrov interviewed (RUS) the veteran of the war in Afghanistan, an “Agfhani”, as Kazakhs would say. Sharipzhan Utegenov was 19 when he was drawn to the army and sent to Afghanistan:

“There was an ideology, the need to protect the Southern borders of our Motherland. To say “no” meant to get a public dissaproval. Many didn't want to go, but because of friendship and soldiers' honor, rarely anyone dared to refuse… I didn't even think about staying, knowing that all my friends would go to war. We were brought up like that …

We didn't realise what Agfhanistan was like, that there was a war. How could it be possible? 1982 was a year of stagnation in the Soviet Union. Peaceful life. The first time I began to comprehend that I was going to war was when we were crossing the Afghan border. On December 12, when we approached the border in the trucks, we were told: “We are now crossing the Soviet-Afghan border. There are combat activities of the opposition. We have to give our brotherly support. We will possibly be shot at. Don't panick, don't jump off the car. Just lie down”. We laughed at it. In half an hour the shooting began… After a while, I had a feeling that I spent all my life in the army, and I had no life before, and I would stay there forever”.

“In 1985 I came back home and I was lost. 1882 was calm and quiet. Then there was “perestroika”. We left the Socialist country and returned to a chaos, pseudo-democracy. Anyone could shout whatever they wanted. There were queues everywhere. No jobs, no salaries. Soul-searching. We came back thinking that the state was waiting for its heros. No one cared, many didn't even know there was a war … There is a feeling that we were used: dropped in the middle of fire when everyone was peacefully studying, earning money, making careers - and then forgotten.

Young people now don't know anything about that war. I was in one school recently. For 40 minutes I spoke about the war in Afghanistan, about politics and its victims. When I finished, one of the pupils said: “How many Germans did you kill?”.

The Red Army Day is still the day …

… when they congratulate men in Kazakhstan.

nemtschin wrote (RUS): Guys, happy holidays! I am from a military family myself. My father was a senior warrant officer, operator and is now a pensioner, my uncle was a Captain, grandfather - a Colonel, ended his service as a head of medical supply of Central Asian military district. I spent my childhood on a military object in DDR, where soldiers and officers visited us, at home we had uniforms, caps, shoulder-straps, and belts, which were often used on me for not observing the subordination … 23 February was always a holiday for my family, even when it was not anymore in Kazakhstan. I was proud when the USSR Minister of Defense was saying in his speech: “Comrades officers!”, I thought he was saying it to my father.

In the following several days the news came with amazing speed: Janna writes on (RUS). First the law-enforcement agencies said they had no idea of what was going on. Then, it turned out that the armed people were … the officers of the special forces of the police, who came to free the hostage! And finally, on February 4th several local and international media outlets received a letter from Kapasheva Armangul addressed to the President of the country Nazarbayev. Armangul is a wife of Timraliev Zholdas, the first deputy Head of the Board of “Nurbank”. In this letter, she claimed that her husband was kidnapped. Twice.

The first kidnapping of Armangul's husband happened on January 18, after the Board meeting. She writes that in the evening of the same day, her husband was taken into a private bath-house, handcuffed, beaten and threatened with gun. Kapasheva maintains that no one else but Rakhat Aliyev was doing it himself.

What did he want? According to her letter, he demanded Timraliev to phone the owners of “Ken Dala” business center, where “Nurbank” occupies an office space, and arrange its transfer to Aliyev. The hostage had to do so. A day later he was brought home. On January 31 (the day of the armed attack on a bank) he went to a meeting with the management of the bank and its shareholder Rakhat Aliyev. Before he left for a meeting he asked his wife to report to the police if something happened to him. He is still not home.

Zonakz.net, former Navigator or Navi, was not accessible on the day when the news broke. Now it's up again and has plenty of comments (mostly anonymous) on this news. I tried to single out and bring forward those few voices that spoke about it (the topic of the “Family” is usually avoided, plus only few sites reported about it) and you might be seeing a bit more of my own voice here than usual.

KUB blog, whose author recently got a two-years suspended sentence, continues providing updates from different authors. As one of them, tiffozi, writes (RUS), Timraliev phoned his wife and said that he is hiding because of the charges brought against him by the financial police. Another colleague of Timraliev, Abel Gilimov is also missing, and he also faces charges. It is believed that Gilimov is relative to Almaty mayor whose clan is said to be in a nasty confrontation with the clan of Aliyev.

Following these conflicting accounts, deputy Dariga Nazarbayeva, Presiden't daughter, described the case as a serious criminal offence, without any politics involved. “As far as I know”, she said, “Timraliev is under a house arrest. I don't know how his wife does not see it…”. Rakhat Aliyev himself commented as well: “… the information on a disappeared former employee of the bank is an obvious libel resembling carefully planned provocation. As far as I know, this person is suspected in a criminal offence and at the moment is under house arrest giving evidence to inspectors. “Nurbank” administration already stated that it would resort to legal protection of its reputation against slander and dirty insinuations. As the bank shareholder, I join this claim”.

There were several comments on Janna Zhukova's post:

LJ user Kubekov said: Well… If doctor Aliyev (Aliyev is a former surgeon) put his hand in it… This is like a cheap action film!

LJ user teihe: Make your bets, gentlemen, on the President's reaction.

It is indeed interesting how the President will react on this, when two clans are involved, one of them being led by his daughter's husband. Some people say it is possible that he will become an ambassador again, as it was after 2001, when he was sent to Austria for several years following similarly mysterious events involving, as some claim, his ambitions for power.

During these events, the President was with an official visit to Germany, where chancellor Angela Merkel was not shy to speak about the human rights situation in Kazakhstan, writes Ben on neweurasia. She particularly offered their help and cooperation in building the legal system. “It’s quite interesting to note that ex-Soviet countries, 17 years into their independence, are still being awarded discounts for their infantile nationhood along the lines of “oh, you’re building a legal system from scratch, of course that takes time”. Sure, the establishment of a sound legal system has taken decades in the Western world, but the time during which points like Merkel’s make sense is slowly running out”, comments Ben.

In his turn, Nazarbayev was not shy when it came to beer-drinking and chose all three from the list of rituals: a woman, a sword and a beer. “Like Putin some years ago, Nazarbaev then downed a huge beer jug and kneed down for his accolade. Now he is a proper Spandau knight”.

In Ukraine, the activists of Novaya Pora movement picketted the building where Nazarbayev was meeting Yushchenko. They held up slogans that said: “Nazarbayev, Don't Make Kuchma's Mistakes!”, explaining that Kazakhstan experiences all that Ukraine did during Kuchma - supression of freedom of speech, denial of registration of opposition parties, unfair elections.

Nazarbayev though has more important things at home to sort out. We shall see.

Kazis Toguzbayev, a journalist who uploaded his articles on KUB, a group blog, was tried in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 22 January. In his article, Toguzbayev implied that the President was covering the murders of the opposition figures. He got a two-year suspended sentence for violating the Criminal Code provisions on insulting the honor and dignity of the President with the use of media.

Toguzbayev was posting all the materials of his proceedings, as well as the court decision on the same blog, sparking debates around his case.

Iwann wrote (RUS):

Do not be afraid of those who are afraid of you!.. Though it is a pity he was not imprisoned - would be good for the cause of democracy.

Aziat replied (RUS):

Feel free to try it yourself. Write something angry and revelatory, publish in the Net and wait. When they come after you, you shout - “satraps! murderers!”, and that's it. You will be jailed. It will make you a pride and a pioneer of democracy.

M.Heidegger said (RUS):

Wouldn't call it a victory, but Toguzbayev has done a lot for freedom of speech in Kazakhstan.

Doctors' Trial: Behind the Closed Doors

The investigation in the case of infection of 87 infants with HIV in the South-Kazakhstani hospitals culminated on 19 January with the trial of 21 people, 18 of whom are medical workers, in the District Court of Shymkent. Since the case opened, 8 children died, and one of them was adopted by American citizens. Neither public nor media was not allowed to be present at the trial. The names of the victims, as well as the acussed were not disclosed. “Good-bye, democracy!” commented LJ user romanil in Kazakhstan politics community.

Mira Baktyhova of neweurasia doubted that the accussed would get a term - some of them are high-ranking officials. “The media representatives were asked not to bother the judges on this topic and that they would receive no single comment even on the phone. Any questions from journalists will be considered as media pressure on the court.”

MP's Son: Will there be a Trial?

On 19 January Serik Ayashev, a son of a Member of the Parliament Onalsyn Ayashev, shot the security guard in one of the elite houses in Astana. LJ gulimeo informed (RUS) that on the day of the incident, the police officers did not arrest Ayashev-junior, thus giving him the opportunity to leave. His father reassured that Serik Ayashev would come to the police himself. But he didn't. Instead the police arrested him after 9 days of waiting.

On 8 January Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Danial Akhmetov resigned, as did the whole Government. Not much change was expected though: “In Kazakhstan's autocratic presidential system, changes of prime minister usually signal a change of tone rather than a change of direction, and the change in prime minister will not bring about a more liberal political landscape or less interventionist economic policies”, wrote the Economist.

Ben of neweurasia has put together the responses of English-language bloggers on Global Voices. For Russian-language bloggers, whose reactions you will see in this roundup, the news was an opportunity to bet on possible changes in the government, gossip about personalities and connections between them, and talk about the new Prime-Minister Karim Massimov, the first ethnic Uighur PM, born in China.

Livejournal user megakhuimyak follows the Kazakhstani politics and admits that he likes being provokative in his blog. Before the new Prime-Minister was appointed, he wrote (RUS):

This is it, Karim Massimov will be our Prime-Minister! Why? Our 01 (President) needs someone not involved into internal fights. Massimov has a strong support from China, where our policy is heading.

LJ user dkzh responded:

Kazakhstan still has a ceiling for non-Kazakhs: either the position of deputy Prime-Minister, or the deputy of the Speaker of the Parliament. Even if the President suggests Massimov, the move will be sabotaged.

strannik_kz wondered:

Do you really think Massimov is not related to the “family”? It was in the press.

megakhuimyakreplied:

Everyone is, but at least he was not fighting them :)

On neweurasia, Adam Kesher made his forecast on future distribution of seats in new government (RUS). He wrote that Massimov, a new PM, was responsible for forming a positive image of the country in the Kazakhstani administration, taking part in image supporting conferences and advertising campaigns in Western media (and possibly, even organising them). As it is known from the official documents of US Ministry of Justice, he also coordinated the work of Washington lobbists. Massimov is the only state official who has his personal website.

After the composition of the new government was announced, LJ user slavasay noted that at least three Ministers-long-livers have left the government. He wrote (RUS):

Vladimir Shkolnik has been a Minister (of Industry and Trade; Energy and Resources; Energy, Industry and Trade; Science; Science and Education; Science and New Technologies), Vice-Premier - for long 12 years and 6 months. This is an absolute record.

Kasym-Zhomart Tokaev has worked in the Government (Prime-Minister, Vice-Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs) for 12 years and 3 months. Second place.

Mukhtar Altynbaev has led the Ministry of Defense (with a break) for 7 years and 11 months. Impressive results.

LJ user tormozz found it difficult to follow the changes in the Government (RUS):

Oh, this reshuffling… The same people, different places - one can hardly remember who is who now … Poor journalists … These people will keep making the news, but on different positions… :) It will take some time before journalists start associating people with their new positions.

Adam Kesher briefed on the new Ministers on his article on neweurasia (see the English translation here).

… It is interesting that when the president introduced Masimov to the Parliament, he did not mention his ethnicity, got away from the text and started his musings about multiculturalism in Kazakhstan. Because ethnic tolerance is often presented as regime’s “brand”, it is strange that they did not mention that the new Premier is not Kazakh. The government has once been led by a non-Kazakh Tereshenko back in the 1990s.

He is surprised to see a “liberal” who once supported the dissolved “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan” in the new Government. He concluded:

In general, the balance of interests between the three strongest clans (the families and people close to the President's sons-in-law) in the Government is preserved, which should indicate that the president still has a firm grip on the situation.

I thought everyone would like to see what goes on at art openings here in Almaty. So, I’m posting some photos of the last show I was in at the beginning of December. I think you guys will be pleasantly surprised to see they don’t look or dress much different than a typical hipster at any art opening in San Francisco or New York.

The night of this show was for the opening of the Seismograms exhibit at the Soros Center For Contemporary Arts. The show is about how artists should be critical of the government and the culture of Kazakhstan. Artists should be the plotter pen and paper on the Seismograms, bouncing and bobbing all over the place exposing the corruption of government and the new rich.

Daniel writes that “major art institutions in Kazakhstan are trying to develop local Kazakh art to help build on the national identity. Soros Center, where Daniel also holds exhibitions, also helps foreign artists to work with locals. Many modern artists, according to Daniel, are successful with foreigners buying their works, which makes them produce art “that seem to be based on traditional Kazakh culture and their painting [and] use mid-20th century techniques often reminiscent of German Expressionism, French Fauvism, and Surrealism.”

It’s easy to come across galleries that are sort of Kazakh retailers/galleries that sell idealized scenes of yurts and horses and traditional scenes of the steppe. I’m surprised how much of this work is available. It’s no surprise to me that these artists sell a lot of their works. They subscribe to this aesthetic to satisfy the foreign market. But, this isn’t (to me) serious art, but it can be good if people identify this work as being merely decorative arts for people who want safe art that looks nice in their dental office waiting area.

It’s a great case study in how art can be influenced by market factors.

15 years ago we were different: we had huge lines to the shops that had nothing to sell, we experienced electricity black-outs, lack of heating, state monopoly on everything and huge inflation.

15 years have changed us: we now have polite salespeople in Gucci stores, we go to corporate parties with our colleagues from multinationals, and we travel around the world (that is when we are asked about Borat's film!).

What are we going to become in 15 years? It is difficult to give a meaningful forecast even for the nearest future. Authoritarian government, oil-dependent economy, rising nationalism and factors as unexpected as the death of a Turkmen president over the border - complicate the forecast.

James of neweurasia had an idea of a cross-blog survey of what is the region going to look like in 15 years. He decided to compile the stories, analysis and surveys by English-language bloggers interested in the region, and by Russian-language local bloggers. Five different people from Kazakhstan wrote their essays about the country's future - fun, fantastic and serious, with or without them: Adam, Marat, Ksenia, Slavoraya, and Vitaly (RU). You can read the summary of the posts and the translation of the most interesting parts of them after the jump.

Adam Kesher. 2021: An Eternal Land of Hopes.

“2021. I am a free citizen of a free country, looking back at my homeland and seeing that nothing had changed. It is still a land of hopes. When I was a Soviet child, it was a country of virgin lands and a cosmodrome - and had everything in front of it. In the 1990s, it was a new state, where everyone was looking forward to future because the present could not have been worse. In the beginning of the 21 century, the aspirations split, mainly due to financial differences - those in the middle were waiting for democracy and money, poor were waiting for money and democracy, and oil-riches - for money, without democracy”.

Adam predicts that after the death of the first president, most of his team would be gone, and only his party would remain. Democratic changes would not happen though: the opposition would be blocked from participation in it (and gracefully abstain from investigation of the current regime's crimes) and the “family” would quickly realise that it would not want to spend money and efforts for a fair game. “And when the “relatives” realised they it would be difficult to agree with the governors about the amount of votes in each region, when they realised that if the West managed to break the tradition of the elections they were used to, it would be even more difficult to agree with the one fairly chosen - each of them decided to act before one's enemy acted.”

“That is when the series of mini-coups would start, with characters changing more often than the the USSR secretaries in the 1980s. Each new character would be supported, be it by secret services, army, business, or intelligentsia. Position of an official, academic or a deputy would cost a lot - in monetary terms, of course. Each new character would repeat - just like a son of slain Russian emperor Pavel - “everything would be just like during papa's rule”. The people would watch amused and quiet, following the ingrained principles of the fisrt president: “It's OK As Long As There Is No War” and “Those Who Compete with Those in Power Are Even Worse”.

Very soon all the relatives would end up in prison, dead or abroad. That is when the new leaders of a new generation would appear: the true populists and politicians. The nationalisation of resources, anti-Chinese sentiments, militarism and chauvinism - would be their slogans. They would not be afraid of fair elections. That, at least, would be an advantage - after 30 years of independence.”

“I hope that political competition - even if the choice is between the extreme left and the extreme right - would never happen other than on fair elections, in parliamentary debates, newspapers, TV screens and peaceful demonstrations. I hope that people would stop dying of doctors' mistakes and education would seize being an annoying waste of money for getting a Diploma. That would again be a Land of Hopes. Though it would, of course, be easier to think so for me, a free citizen of a free European country, than for my countrymen back home”, writes Adam.

Marat. Kazakhstan-2021 or Everything is Up in the Air.

Bad option 1: China invades Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan becomes a battlefield and nuclear weapon is applied. Then Marat's day would look like this: “Big Yhh slowly got up. His name used to be Marat - he forgot about it. His current life did not involve complexities. “Rat-people from Ainabulak have gone crazy”, thought Big Yhh, “Should kill couple of those, so that that they do not violate the district borders, plus they make a great “kazy“.

Bad option 2: Kazakhstan is torn by a fight with the terrorist groups of Central Asia and Xingjan. “Five murdered militants were lying on the floor of destructed building. Marat was banging on the heads of the four hostages. He saw a movement on the back of his head: Honey, I told you, you should target kidneys!”.

Finally, a likely option: Oil would lose its position due to development of new energy sources: bioethanol, coleseed oil and electric batteries. Kazakhstan will continue maintaining good relations with China through investments and counterfeiting the US and the Islamic world. Strong business links and cultural exchange would help Kazakhstan prevent cooling relations with Russia. Political system would change: the country would turn into Parliamentary republic, with Nazarbayev as a head of Otan party that would control the Parliament. All clans, groups and other forces would be represented in power and the balance of interests would be preserved. There would be more freedoms, though education would stagnate. However, increased stidy abroad and special training centres at companies would help keeping it up. Media would serve different power groups, the languages would share the spheres of use: English would become a language of technology and culture, Kazakh and Russian would both be languages of every day use, culture and public service. Regions beyond Almaty and Astana would develop: Aktyubinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Pavlodar and Shymkent would prosper. Rural areas and other regions though would decline.

Then, Marat's typical day in 2021 would look like this: “Marat got up at 8. It was useless to get up earlier - despite numerous new roads and metro, the number of cars in Almaty grew. “Regional financial center, damn it!”, thought Marat and activated his computer. The reports showed that the price of his investment portfolio stayed on the same level - the oil prices were stable for the last few years. “I should have bought the “Intel” shares - they seem to be settling for long here. Where is the juice! Since my wife left for Dushanbe to manage the Turan Alem Bank micro-district project with the Chinese, the house is a mess!”. Grumpy, Marat was going around the house, while the “clever house” was launching one system of life support after another. The TV darkly reported on Russia's protests against American military bases in Moldova, suppression of another Islamic militants group in Ferghana valley by the SOC forces and appointment of a new government in Kazakhstan…

Ksenia. Ekibastuz-2021: Aspirations of a young couple.

“Adil - is a simple Kazakh guy, he works at the construction of the power station 3 and lives in a city with his girlfriend Ami. Ami came from China with her parents, who also work at the construction. They got a flat from the state, and when Ami and Adil get married and have a child, they will get another flat and a good allowance. This comes as part of the state program on improvement of demographic situation and birth rate.” Adil and Ami would like walking around the old city, with its botanic gardens, though it would not be safe at times because of nationalist youth who would not warm up to migrants from China. The punishment for hate crimes though would be harsh, continues Ksenia. Another problem of the old city would be a network of illegal casinos, hosted at the private accommodation of the entrepreneurs. Adil would ride a bicycle, as many other people would do, since the prices to European cars would increase after the ban of right-hand-drive cars. Ami would dream of opening up her own boutique, which would be only possible now to do in a new supermarket, as the small shops would be forced to close down.

Slavoyara. Pavlodar-2021: Visiting home city after immigration.

“2021. Me and my husband are the citizens of another country, however, our home country is calling us, though our past memories are difficult to combine with the modern look of Pavlodar … My children do not speak Kazakh, I myself forgot it long ago, though I used to speak it fluently. As everyone, I was afraid that all the book-keeping would be transferred to Kazakh 15 years ago… There are still Russians in Pavlodar. All children speak Kazakh, including the Russian kids. Wonderful… I see that the government had enough intelligence and resources to solve the language issue… When we were approaching the city, I saw the smoking chimneys of the aluminium factory. It became bigger. Oil and chemical factory, on the other hand, was closed down recently: old equipment did not let it work on the world level, and management did not invest into its renewal”.

Vitaly: Kazakhstan 2021: Youth, the Optimistic and a Pessimistic Outlooks

“Murat Abdumenov, Director of the South-Kazakhstan regional affiliate of Youth Congress thinks that the desire to solve current economic issues attracts the youth into politics”. The youth organizations, wrote Vitaly, would develop a new law on state youth policies, which would amend the drawbacks of the one adopted in 2004. Dariga Nazarbayeva agrees is ready to support it. How the youth policies are managed now will determine the future development of the country.

Optimistic view: Kazakhstan would achieve its long-term priority goals, as defined by Nazarbayev in his 2030 strategy: national security, provided by friendly relations with neighbouring countries and balanced policies having vast resources. Internal political stability would be provided by the continuation of the President's course on interethnic piece and more young people in the Government. The country would have a stable economic growth due to foreign investments, GDP growth of 10% per year, state anti-monopolist policies and non-interference with private sphere. The HIV crisis in Shymkent would teach the government a lesson, and health, education and well-being would be improved. The state would ban the advertisement of alcohol and increase taxes for tobacco and alcohol, and switch to ecologically friendly ways of production. The infrastructure and public service would be improved with the help of young professionals, who would study abroad with the presidential scholarship and come back to work for the state.

Pessimistic forecast: Oil production would decrease and the remaining energy deposits would belong to Chinese and American companies. It turns out that the 2030 Development Strategy was drafted not by Nazarbayev, but by James Giffen, and its final goal was to let the United States manage Kazakhstan like a business-corporation. Private property would disappear; instead, several groups of oligarchs, who pressure business through state bodies, share the markets: Aliev-Nazarbayeva, Timur Kulibaev's group, a group of Nurzhan Subhanberdinov (Kazkommertsbank), a trio of Mashkevich-Shodiev-Ibragimov (Eurasian group). The state would further criminalise: the murders of the opposition figures and the “Kazakhgate” continue. The state would turn into one-party totalitarian regime: the merger of Otan and Asar could prove this point. There is a rumour that the opposition is managed by the state: Nazarbayev is interested in having a weak, artificial and managed movement to prevent the real social movements. Media would turn into propaganda tools and opposition would be stifled. People would not be able to buy lands: now if one wants to purchase land, they see that it is already being sold, no one knows to whom. Russian cultural influence would have a negative effect on Kazakh language development.

Next President? Vitaly tries Rakhat Aliev's candidature. Being married to Dariga Nazarbayeva, Rakhat has a strong influence in politics, media and finances, and they could both manage the country with combined influence and common interests. Another option - a leader of one of the financial groups in Kazakhstan, who now influence the political life. They would want to see their own person in power. And the third option, suggested by Vitaly, would be an unknown successor of Nazarbayev. This option would be possible if the status of the “family” and the financial groups is preserved.

“I phoned Sanzhar [Bokaev, a shortly detained leader of the movement against the ban of the right-hand-drive cars], he is in Almaty district police, which is next to Nikolski bazaar. Help him if you are a lawyer! He can answer the phone though, he can speak, he is safe, they are not beating him… And hello to a pretty BBC correspondent that I invited for a cup of tea…” - LJ user da_simon, coming home after the protests.

Strongly against the ban

The public opposition to the Presiden't decision to ban the import and the use of the cars with the right-hand steering wheels continues, with increasing presence in Kazakhstani web space. Svoboda.kz (RUS), the site created shortly after the ban, now boasts more than 22.000 unique visits since 23 November and more than 6.500 people who signed the online petition against the ban. Belaya Yurta, a new blog, collects the reports of the protests in different cities in Kazakhstan (so far Almaty, Astana, Pavlodar, Petropavlovsk, Semey and Ust-Kamenogorsk), photos, videos, open letters and statements on the issue (RUS).

Not authorised in any city expect for Pavlodar, the protests were peaceful everywhere, hindered by heavy snowfall in Karaganda, and actively attended by both protesters and the police in Almaty, where the only arrests on the grounds of illegality of the protests happened. For getting a general picture, watch this video, a report of Channel 31 private TV (in Russian).

Another private TV station KTK was instructed not to report on the protests, according to a message from LJ user rtyom, in a newly created Livejournal community against the ban pravo_rulya_kz (RUS). “Who is next?” - asks rtyom, “How can we make it clear that we are not in the opposition?”


The Logo of the Movement: Soyuz Pravyl Sil Kazahstana (The Union of the Right in Kazakhstan)

The word “right” has many meanings, which made it a creative task to make up the slogans and the name for the movements. Take, for instance, “Without Right and Wrong!”, “For a Right Cause”, or, the latest creation “The Union of the Right Forces in Kazakshtan”. Nevermind a political party with the same name.

Meanwhile - Fashion Week

People in Kazakhstan have more cars, want more rights, and - want to wear the clothes that are local yet fashionable, wrote the New York Times about Kazakhstan Fashion Week, held on November 22-25 in Almaty. The week hosted several collections of Kazakh designers: “Ms. Azikhan, a fashion designer who opened her first boutique there last year, hopes her line will inspire the wives of local oil barons and metals magnates to give up imports like Chanel and Versace”, writes the NYT.

Some are not yet ready to buy local, not only because of the level of prices for oil barons, but also because of the quality of the clothes themselves. LJ user doctor_tseplik writes (RUS):

“Textiline” with its fashion street collection and Daralique were good… The rest… Oh my God. Do you remember the pillowcases of the Soviet times? They were turned into blouses… The sheets became skirts, which miraculously turned into trousers in the middle… To make it look better, the models had two tails of hair - to look like milkers from a collective farm… Designer! Haute Couture! Pret-a-Porte!”

Nathan of Registan has snapshots of strange sights of the shows, KZblog comments on the article: “Certainly everyone I know who goes on a business trip to Europe or the US brings back clothing for friends and family. And there are rumors of high-level officials planning trips based on the shopping seasons. But now we know that some segment of the Kazakh population can jet set to London, Paris, New York and be hip to the latest fashions.”

Nazarbayev speaks

Nazarbayev's latest statements continue to be discussed in the blogosphere. His now famous refusal to run after the West with “pants down”, went forgotten 10 days later, when he kindly commented on Borat during his visit to London. He surprised again when he said at a press conference that 15 years of Kazakhstan's independence can be compared to 150 years of calm history of humankind. Trying to make sense of it, Ben of neweurasia quotes Nazarbayev's “Kazakhstan 2030″ development strategy (”half past eight”, as put by locals), calling it a “Snow Leopard Development Theorem”:

Kazakhstani Snow Leopard would … possess western elegance multiplied by the advanced level of development, oriental wisdom and endurance. He will be all at one in his strivings, victories and failures with his brothers brought up by a single mother, i. e. by Uzbek, Kyrghyz and other Central Asian Snow Leopards. He will be ever proud of their progress and achievements.

Kazakhstani Media

Adam of neweurasia posted an interview with Merkhat Sharipzhan, a Director of “Azattyq”, Kazakh language service of RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). In his sincere talk, Merkhat provides an insight into the situation with media, language, government and opposition in Kazakhstan, and sheds light on tragic death of his brother, a journalist Askhat Sharipzhanov, who was hit by a car in July 2004.

Askar Shomshekov cites the editor of the “Sobytiya Nedeli” (Weekly News) paper from Pavlodar, the city 350km northeast of the capital Astana, on his Kazakhstan journalism blog (RUS). The newspaper is being shut down: “Remember, how “Irtysh-Times”, “Vesti Pavlodara”, TV channel “Irbis” seized to operate? Now we might add to this list. We were never involved with the politics, however, someone does not like us now…Unfortunately, it is not possible to make an honest newspaper here in Pavlodar…”.

LJ user raseyannaya, a young journalist from Ekibastuz, a town in Pavlodar region with 127.200 people, compares journalism in Pavlodar and Ekibastuz after receiving a training on legal aspects of journalism (RUS). “… The trainers told us about the trials of journalists, then asked us to share our stories. We kept silent - it is sad to admit that Ekibas has only partisan media, and there are no trials because we only write on demand and for money. There is a newspaper, which seriously cares about its image, but they have a strong “front”… The rest just earn their living”.

Kazakh President in Aralsk by lambro

“Kazakhstan invented a national chess game. Introduced a new chess piece “President”. It can go as it wishes and take whatever it wishes to take”, jokes LJ user kubekov (RUS).

President's New Initiatives

It is usually a case in Kazakhstan that the President starts new initiatives, announcing them sometimes expectedly, sometimes not quite. This gives a lot of room for public deliberations - and online discussions. Let us see how the following new statements were discussed in Kazakhstan blogosphere.

Language issue

First, there was an offer to consider switching to Latin alphabet, which the President voiced at the meeting of the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan that adopted the Latin script in 2001, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - both switched to Latin in the mid-1990s. Language issues guarantee to spark debates in multiethnic Kazakhstan, where majority speaks Russian.

Dmitry of neweurasia is positive about the change, he notes that this initiative got a good feedback from Azerbaijan: the head of the state commission on Azeri language has already promised his assistance (RUS). Dmitry says that Latin alphabet will increase the presence of Kazakh in the Internet and improve the position of Kazakh language in public life. In addition, Dmitry suggests not to look up on Russia, which traditionally takes languge reforms from former Soviet countries as a non-friendly gesture and a wish to break away from its zone of influence.

LJ user dkzh (Dauren Zhambaibekov) offers his version of a new Kazakh Latin alphabet (RUS). He is also one of the supporters of the reform, and he says that first, the new alphabet will have 30 letters instead of 42, second, it is easier to type in Latin and to enter the world information space, and finally, this alphabet is close to the spirit of the language - linguistically and phonetically.

On Registan, English-language bloggers discuss the peculiarities of learning Central Asian languages with Latin or Cyrrilic script. On Internet newspaper Zona.kz Maxim, who opposes the change, argues that typing with Cyrillic is not a problem, as all letters are well fit into the keyboard (RUS). The problem of encoding, he says, is in the past, with new Unicode standard, supported by Windows 2000, Windows XP.

Standard Kazakh keyboard

No more right-hand-drive cars

Then came the cars' turn. Speaking at the Security Council meeting, President announced that the right-hand-drive models will be banned in Kazakhstan from January 1, 2007, due to high number of accidents involving such cars (currently there are 74.000).

It turns out that the issue is close to many bloggers: Marat wrote a letter to the President, and appealed to Livejournal community to do the same; several of them already did (RUS). “The cars with left hand side steering wheels are more expensive… How will we be competitive without vehicles!”.

LJ user raseyannaya: Do such letters reach the President?
LJ user megakhuimyak: It reaches the administrative office - they do consider them, and if there is a critical mass, the signal goes higher.

We will see how it goes with this campaign, and a protest, scheduled for Saturday, meanwhile, LJ user nemtchin informs that his colleague has signed up for a change of the steering wheel: his turn comes in December 2007 (RUS).

We do not need Western advice

Finally, the President dismissed Western advice, in a surprising statement on November 10. Registan has a post on it, where he attributed the statement to West's view on Kazakhstan's chairmanship of OSCE. John MacLeod, specialist in Central Asian affairs in Institute of War and Peace Reporting, thinks that this statement was not significant.

“Well, I think he was speaking to a particular audience, and it wasn't a Western audience and it wasn't even a national-level government audience in Kazakhstan,” MacLeod said. “He was speaking to members of his own party and to members of the Civic Party, which is going to merge with his party– the big Otan Party. I guess that he was just veering off the script and trying to tell [them] if you like local politicians [think] that everything is fundamentally ok with the country, that he's in charge, that he's not driven by external interests, and that they can rest comfortably with the merger of the two parties and with being part of his kind of big national project.”

Tengiz aftermath

The shocking scenes and witnesses' accounts from Tengiz brawl between Turkish and Kazakh workers provoked further discussions on the state of local employees at foreign oil and coal companies. neweurasia's Ksenia posts an article about Ekibastuz miners of “Bogatyr Access Komir“, a coal production company owned by American “Access Industries” (RUS). A publication in a local newspaper shed light to poor conditions of employees. Formed into a Committee, the workers planned a strike, but the company filed a suit just two days before. The court decided that the workers do not have a right to strike and their salaries stay the same.

Marat has posts on Tengiz, where he tries to analyze the history of the oil deposit and of Tengizshevroil company (RUS).

The Oil Business

Kazakhstan boasts having unique oil and gas deposit, Karachaganak, 150 km east from the city of Uralsk in the northeast of Kazakhstan. Having an area of over 280 square kilometres, it holds more than 1,200 million tonnes of oil and condensate and over 1.35 trillion cubic metres of gas, and is the biggest investment project in Kazakhstan. Starting from 1991, Kazakhstan government starting making deals with foreign companies, including AGIP (now ENI), British Gas (now BG group), Texaco (now Chevron Corporation) and Lokoil.

On neweurasia Kazakhstan, Marat reveals the history of Karachaganak, discovered in the 1980s (RUS). Marat shares some curious details: in 1991, for example, at the peak of oil extraction and due to poor safety measures regulation, one of the wellsites started spitting gas in the air as a huge fountain. As in 1991 the country was busy with “putch” and the following collapse of the Soviet Union, no one really cared. Safety rules require burning the gas and hydrogen fountains, so locals could enjoy the vivid scenery of liquid fire shooting up to 300-500 meters. Tungush, a small village 3 kilometers from the field has dissapeared, then the inhabitants were moved to Aksai, a nearby town, by the Soviet Union. After its collapse, the flats were successfully boozed away, and when foreigners arrived to the field, the inhabitants of the village started complaining, and subsequently, each family got one flat in Aksai, one in Uralsk and a car in addition. Other villages started looking at it as an example… In his Livejournal, Marat posts photos from Karachaganak.

The Atyrau Informant updates from another oil-rich corner of Kazakhstan - city of Atyrau on the Caspian sea. On 20 October, a big brawl started between Kazakh and Turkish workers of Tengizchevroil company, where, according to Tengizchevroil General Director Todd Levy one Indian, 193 Turkish, and two Kazakh workers suffered injuries. The Atyrau Informant kept his readers updated on the conflict, posting photos from local websites on the day when the conflict started, commenting on possible reasons behind the conflict, and giving his personal views on the issue. The incident sparked anti-Turkish sentiment in Kazakhstan blogosphere, which then grew into general resentment about discrimination against locals at foreign oil companies. In many comments, the Government was blamed for letting in companies that discriminate, do not allow labour unions and hire illegal workers.

From Marat's post on neweurasia Kazakhstan, we find out that not only oil company employees, but also miners face hardships in Kazakhstan (RUS). Recently, 43 miners died in an accident in Karaganda, and Marat thinks that we got used to hearing about miners dying in explosions. He attributes it to poor safety regulations and again, restrictions imposed by foreign companies.

Several Days Before Borat Hits the Screens

The commentors on KUB blog are listing Anti-Borat characters of Kazakhstan public life. One of them is a local singer Takezhan with his low-budget video, another is Minister of Information and Culture Yertysbaev (on the picture), and the third is Kazakhstan's deputy foreign minister Rakhat Aliyev, who invited Sasha Baron Cohen to visit the country.

“No one used to laugh at us and they still don't!”

The first four minutes of the film posted in Almaty Livejournal community got a variety of responses. LJ user constantiner says:

My personal opinion is that “Nomad” made more damage to Kazakhstan's image than Borat

Erik Sultanov, a press secretary of the Muslims Union of Kazakhstan, went over to the UK, interviewed Sasha Cohen and posted it to Zonakz (RUS). The following two comments represent the spectrum of reactions to Borat:

Borat is definitely smarter than stupid Kazakh officials, so Kazakistan deserves him. If Borat comes to Kazakhstan, he would find it even funnier.

Their humour is different from ours… Foreigners just don't understand our hospitality. I know one Englishman who was trying to pay to the old lady for arranging a “dastarhan“, a table with food, and when an interpreter explained him that it is not necessary, he thought that it was a provocation…

Journalism and Freedom of Speech

Askar Shomshekov blogs about freedom of speech and freedom of press, particularly, in Pavlodar region, where he works at the Media Support Center (RUS). Ann Olson, an American media trainer, told him that the West does not know what to do to make Kazakhstani media free, and our journalists - professional. Many years of financed programs on media support, sponsored by American taxpayers, have not made Kazakhstan media free and professional. Whom, how and what do we need to teach?.. As Adam Kesher's post on Russian-language neweurasia Kazakhstan shows, Kazakhstan fell from 119 to 128 place in the annual rating on press freedom compiled by Reporters without Borders.