Kazakhstan Featurees - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 19 - 24 of 1312

CSTO

CSTO Signs New Security Roadmap in Bishkek Amid Armenia Boycott and Putin Ukraine Remarks

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) reaffirmed its commitment to regional security and political coordination during its annual summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on November 27. Leaders from five of the bloc’s six members - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan - attended the event and signed off on a series of military, security, and strategic cooperation agreements. Armenia, the sixth CSTO member, boycotted the summit for the second year running, continuing its protest against the alliance’s refusal to intervene during Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan, and marking another low in Armenia’s engagement with the CSTO after months of public grievances against the bloc. Despite Yerevan’s absence, the other members adopted a wide-ranging joint declaration reaffirming the alliance’s collective defense commitments and outlining new initiatives to modernize its security framework. Notably, Armenia did not oppose the adoption of the summit documents in its absence. The CSTO, founded in 2002 and led by Russia, has a charter that guarantees mutual defense among members, though the bloc has often struggled to act decisively during regional crises. Still, it remains the only formal security alliance connecting Russia with post-Soviet Central Asian republics. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov hosted the summit, marking the end of his country’s chairmanship. Japarov handed over the role to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who announced that Russia will lead the CSTO in 2026 under the motto “Collective Security in a Multipolar World: Common Goal—Shared Responsibility.” The bloc also appointed Kyrgyzstan’s Taalatbek Masadykov as the next Secretary General. The former deputy head of Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council will begin his three-year term on January 1, 2026. In remarks during the summit, Putin also addressed global concerns about the war in Ukraine, stating that a 28-point peace plan proposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump could serve as a “basis for future agreements.” He added that Russia has no intention of attacking Europe, seeking to dispel fears of escalation while reaffirming Moscow’s security agenda. The summit ended with the adoption of a large number of documents. Among them were a strategy to combat drug trafficking and plans to improve border security, peacekeeping readiness, and anti-terrorism efforts. Russia used the summit to offer CSTO members a rearmament initiative. Putin proposed supplying allies with modern Russian-made weapons that had “proven their effectiveness” in recent conflicts. The offer included expanded cooperation in joint production and training. Military exercises will continue under the newly adopted five-year cooperation plan. In 2025, the CSTO held drills in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Tajikistan under the banner “Indestructible Brotherhood.” The plan outlines regular future training, integration of air defense units, and enhancements to peacekeeping logistics. The alliance also adopted an Anti-Drug Strategy for 2026–2030 and signed a joint resolution to intensify Operation “Kanal,” which targets drug routes through Central Asia. The CSTO committed to upgrading its counterterrorism strategy and enhancing cyber defense capabilities, with Russia proposing broader coordination on information security and biosecurity. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, meanwhile, used the summit to urge partners to accelerate border security aid along Tajikistan’s porous southern frontier...

Electoral Reform

Opinion: Kazakhstan’s Electoral Reforms – Why Officials and Experts Are Reconsidering Local Democracy

The metaphor that history moves in a spiral has resurfaced in Kazakhstan, where ongoing debates over electoral reform and information policy are testing the boundaries of the country’s democratic trajectory. Recent official messaging points toward a more managed model of political participation, framed as a necessary response to emerging challenges. This trajectory was articulated by State Councilor Erlan Karin in his article, "The Politics of Common Sense," published in the state-run Kazakhstanskaya Pravda. In the piece, Karin reflects on the formation of public values in Kazakhstan, portraying it as an evolutionary process. Simultaneously, Karin references government-led social programs, such as “Law and Order,” “Clean Kazakhstan,” and “Adal Azamat” - a program focused on building character, promoting civic responsibility, and fostering national unity - as instruments of state-directed civic education. Karin reiterates his previously stated position on the existence of “red lines” in public discourse, sensitive subjects such as interethnic relations, religion, language, and foreign policy. While insisting that these topics should not be off-limits, he calls for “common sense” in how they are discussed. “When it comes to public stability, the state will not compromise,” he asserts, adding that the government will lawfully oppose any attempts at “destructive information influence and incitement to hatred.” Karin also highlights what he describes as a new category of problematic actors: "This spring, I drew attention to a phenomenon known as ‘inforeket,’ in which certain bloggers and activists engage in outright extortion. This practice stems from past policies of appeasement toward disruptive elements, which encouraged the rise of pseudo-public figures, bloggers, and ‘tame oppositionists.’ Now abandoned by their once-powerful patrons and wealthy clients, they continue to seek income using outdated methods." In the same article, Karin names a group of experts, deputies, and public figures who contributed input to the new internal policy principles. Several of these individuals are currently advancing proposals to revise aspects of Kazakhstan’s electoral system—particularly the mechanisms for selecting district akims. Among them is Berik Abdygaliuly, political scientist, historian, and director of the National Museum of Kazakhstan. In a recent podcast, Abdygaliuly argued for reconsidering the model of electing district akims. He noted that while more than 3,000 rural akims and maslikhat deputies have been elected in recent years, the outcomes have been mixed. Voter fatigue is mounting, he said, and the financial costs of repeated campaigns - amounting to hundreds of millions of tenge - have not corresponded with visible improvements in local governance. His proposal is that district akims should be chosen not by direct popular vote but by maslikhats, the local representative bodies empowered to demand reports, assess performance, express no confidence, and initiate dismissals. This idea quickly gained support from other commentators participating in public discussions of governance reform. Political analyst Marat Shibutov wrote on his Telegram channel that the electorate is “simply getting tired of elections” after several consecutive voting cycles since 2021. Shibutov supported the idea of “revising or freezing” the election mechanism for district akims as “rational.” Meanwhile, political scientist Andrey Chebotarev highlighted...

Oil and Gas

KMG Pushes Back on Reports of European Asset Sale Amid Romania Refinery Losses

KazMunaiGaz (KMG) says it has no concrete plans to sell any of its European assets, though pressure is building to at least sell off some of the Kazakh company’s shares in oil refineries in Romania. Reports on November 21 said KMG was looking to privatize up to 50% of its shares in its subsidiary KMG International’s (KMGI) European operations in Europe. The reports were based on a list of recommendations from Kazakhstan’s Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition (APDC), which proposed, as part of the 2026-2027 strategy, that KMGI should have a two-stage tender to sell up to 50% of its stakes. On November 26, KMG denied making any decisions about KMGI businesses in Europe, adding that the APDC’s list of recommendations “includes assets from different sectors, but this in itself does not automatically trigger a sale.” Rompetrol KMGI has 28 companies operating in seven countries, four of them European, but the focus of reports was on the two oil refineries KMGI owns in Romania. KMGI purchased 75% of the shares in the Romanian oil company Rompetrol in 2007, and in 2009 bought the remaining 25% of shares in the company. That sale included the Petromidia oil refinery, with a capacity of some five million tons annually, and the smaller Vega refinery, with a capacity of some 350,000 tons that Rompetrol owns. KMGI also took ownership of the oil terminal near Constanta on the Black Sea coast, some 20 kilometers from the Petromidia refinery. The terminal imports mainly Kazakh oil. KMGI invested billions of dollars in upgrades and modernization of the refineries and the terminal, and finally, in 2017, operations of subsidiary Rompetrol Rafinare (54.63% KMGI and 44.7% Romanian state through the energy Ministry) showed a profit - $80 million. By 2022, profits had slightly increased to $90.3 million, but in December that year, the Romanian authorities changed tax regulations, and in 2023, Rompetrol Rafinare registered a net loss of some $270.5 million, and in 2024, a loss of $78 million. In the first six months of 2025, the company lost $53 million and paid some $771 million in taxes to the Romanian government. Rompetrol Rafinare has complained to the Romanian government that the tax burden is preventing the company from investing in new projects and has brought a legal challenge to the solidarity tax in court. In such a situation, it seems unlikely KMG would easily find a party interested in buying up to 50% of KMGI’s Romanian operation, unless the price was very low. Opponents of the proposed arrangement point to the $7 billion in investment KMG has made over nearly 20 years into upgrading the Romanian refineries as a reason to be patient for a while longer. KMGI KMG has subsidiaries operating in Switzerland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Moldova, and Georgia, as well as in Romania and Kazakhstan. At the start of 2025, there were reports that KMG was considering the acquisition of an oil refinery in Bulgaria from Russia’s LUKoil, so it appeared the Kazakh company...

Rare Earth Metals

Kazakhstan Enters the Global Rare Earth Metals Arena

Kazakhstan ranks among the global leaders in proven rare earth metals (REM) reserves. Until recently, this fact was often accompanied by the familiar phrase “underutilized potential.” Today, the country is rapidly shifting from being a raw material supplier to a strategic actor capable of influencing critical material supply chains. Amid intensifying global competition for resources, Kazakhstan is steadily establishing itself in the rare earth market. Central to this transformation is the state-owned mining company Tau-Ken Samruk, which is expanding aggressively both domestically and internationally. Rare Earth Potential Kazakhstan recently announced the discovery of a deposit containing strategically significant minerals, including cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and yttrium, with total reserves estimated at multi-million tons. These materials are vital for modern industrial production and technological development. To date, over 100 deposits of rare and rare-earth elements have been identified in Kazakhstan, including Kurumsak, Bala-Sauskandyk, Akbulak, Kundybay, and Verkhnee-Espe. The country currently produces 19 of the 34 known rare earth elements. Kazakhstan possesses a unique combination of advantages: vast reserves, strategic geographic location, political stability, and a pivot toward processing and manufacturing high-value-added products. Where once the country focused primarily on extraction and minimal processing, the current strategy is fundamentally different. Kazakhstan is now aiming to build a full-scale industrial chain, positioning itself as an alternative hub in a market long dominated by China. This is particularly notable as diversification efforts by the U.S., European Union, Japan, and South Korea have progressed slowly. In short, Kazakhstan is quickly gaining strategic "rare earth" agency. A recent example is the case of the Severny Katpar and Verkhniy Kairakty tungsten deposits. In 2018, China’s Xiamen Tungsten expressed interest, but withdrew without signing legally binding agreements. In 2025, Tau-Ken Samruk signed an agreement with U.S.-based Cove Capital to develop the same assets. This development underscores a larger trend: Kazakhstan is no longer viewed as a peripheral resource supplier, but rather as a contested zone in the U.S.-China competition for critical materials. Global Expansion According to Nurlan Zhakupov, chairman of the board of the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, Kazakhstan intends to deepen its involvement in the global REM market by processing not only domestic materials but also raw inputs from third countries. Tau-Ken Samruk has launched geological exploration projects for rare earths in Rwanda and Afghanistan. “Tau-Ken Samruk is actively engaging with foreign partners,” Zhakupov noted. “We’ve signed an agreement with a Rwandan government agency and identified five target areas. Entry requires establishing a joint venture with a Rwandan state-owned company.” Africa is emerging as a significant REM source, with countries like Burundi already engaging in commercial mining. British firm Rainbow Rare Earths began operations at the Gakara mine in 2017. Kazakhstan’s exploration efforts in Rwanda aim to secure raw inputs for domestic processing. Collaboration with Rwanda’s Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board includes evaluating beryllium sales for Kazatomprom. During his official visit to Kazakhstan, Rwandan President Paul Kagame expressed interest in Kazakhstani technologies, particularly in energy, mining, and mineral processing. However, operations in Africa come with risks. Rwanda and...

Afforestation

Planting Trees to Heal Old Wounds: Can a Desert Forest Save the Aral’s Last Residents?

In the Aralkum Desert, afforestation campaigns have multiplied since the early 2000s. They are meant to slow the sandstorms, temper a rapidly warming climate, and protect the health of those still living in the shadow of the Aral Sea. But the promised results have not appeared yet. The road from Aralsk to Aiteke Bi cuts through a palette of ochre and dust. Trucks drift forward in pale clouds, dragging the desert behind them like a long train. In these villages scattered along the former shoreline of the Aral Sea, the wind never leaves. It is abrasive, restless, and a witness to a vanished water body that once cooled the hottest corner of Kazakhstan. Respiratory diseases now run through family histories, and doctors say they can recognize lungs shaped by ecological collapse. At the polyclinic in Aiteke Bi, patients describe the same symptoms with weary precision: breath shortening too quickly, coughs that never fully recede, a fatigue that never seems to lift. Nuralay, 52, says the storms “get into the house, into the throat, into everything.” She admits she cannot remember a season without irritation in her chest. For Dr. Kuanyshqar Assilov, who has watched the pattern deepen for years, the cause is unmistakable: decades of airborne salts, pesticide residues, and industrial chemicals lifted from the dried seabed of the Aral Sea. [caption id="attachment_39897" align="aligncenter" width="1378"] In Aralsk, sand covers everything[/caption] Marat Narbaev, executive director of the International Fund to Save the Aral Sea (IFAS), recounts the disaster’s origins with a mixture of resignation and habit. He traces it back to the 1960s, when Soviet planners diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya to feed cotton monocultures. “The cotton was used to make clothing for soldiers and ammunition,” he says. Today, he argues, the basin faces two pressures: “climate change and demographic growth. Fifty million inhabitants… soon seventy.” In this landscape, the promise of restoring the region through afforestation has acquired symbolic weight. Saxaul trees - hardy, grey-green, capable of surviving in brackish soils - are planted by the millions on the exposed seabed. Officially, they are meant to stabilize sand, calm storms, and cool the surface. Unofficially, they carry the hope that life here might once be breathable again. Survivalist tree? On paper, the saxaul is a biological survivalist: roots plunging more than 30 feet deep, the ability to stabilize dunes, lower surface salinity, and grow dense enough within a few years to slow the wind. In Aralkum, a village east of Aralsk, residents praise the planting that lines a dozen houses. “It really worked, the storms became more bearable,” a man says. Then he shrugs: more trees should have been planted. “We asked for the other side of the village, but there’s no funding left.” Nowadays, half of the trees have died, and the rest lie buried beneath the dunes. [caption id="attachment_39896" align="aligncenter" width="1378"] In Aralkum village, half of the surviving trees barely emerge from the sand[/caption] Sometimes, past plantations have almost zero trees left. According to a 2021...

Healthcare

What Prevents Kazakh Women from Using Contraception

Kazakhstani researchers are once again drawing attention to a sensitive yet vital issue: women’s access to contraception and the broader state of reproductive health. Experts at Ranking.kz describe this matter as socially significant, directly affecting public health, quality of life, and the country’s demographic trends. According to the National Statistics Bureau (NSB), the unmet need for contraception among women with partners in Kazakhstan continues to rise. In 2024, the rate reached 18%, up from just 9.8% in 2015. The NSB attributes this unmet need to two main reasons cited by women: 12.5% said they do not want children “at this particular moment”; and 5.5% said they do not plan to become pregnant at all, “as they already have children”. However, analysts argue that the actual reasons are far more complex, encompassing unstable relationships, financial hardship, childfree lifestyle choices, and medical risks. The NSB’s approach, which treats contraception solely as a tool for regulating fertility, largely overlooks its crucial role in preventing sexually transmitted infections. Access to contraception is becoming more limited. In 2024, only 45.2% of women who wished to use contraceptives were able to do so, a decline from 55.7% in 2014. The reasons for use remain narrowly defined: delaying pregnancy or avoiding it entirely. The study also highlights stark regional disparities. Western Kazakhstan presents the most concerning figures. In the Aktobe region, 26.7% of women in partnerships report wanting but being unable to use contraception. The Atyrau region follows closely with 25.6%, then West Kazakhstan at 24%, and Astana at 23%. For comparison, dissatisfaction with access was just 11.7% nationally in 2015. The unmet need is most acute among the youngest women: 20-24 years old - 27.8%; and 15-19 years old - 25.8%. Substantial figures are also seen in older age brackets: 25-29 years old - 25%; 30-34 years old - 21.5%; and 35-39 years old - 16.9%. Globally, the United Nations reports an unmet need for contraception at 15% in 2024. Contributing factors include religious and cultural attitudes, economic barriers, lack of awareness, and restrictions imposed by partners or family members. Despite increasing demand, only 39.7% of Kazakhstani women of reproductive age, around 1.9 million individuals, currently use contraceptives. While this represents the highest number in recent years, the gap between need and access remains significant.