The unrest in Kazakhstan, the tensions around Ukraine and the need to have a credible European policy vis-à-vis Russia dominated the main event at the inauguration of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU – the press conference by French President Emmanuel Macron and Commission chief Ursula von …

Sparked by a small protest over a fuel price increase in the western oil town of Zhanaozen a few days earlier, angry crowds flooded the streets and squares of Kazakhstan’s major towns and cities on January 5, shouting their discontent with the authoritarian government’s domestic policies. Alarmed by the scale …

It may be a cliché, but Kazakhstan’s ongoing dramatic crisis recalls one of Lenin’s most famous quotes, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Kazakhstan has for many years seen neither political change nor steady economic growth, with a regime dominated by kleptocratic elite …