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Getting by as a gastarbeiter in Kazakhstan
The stream of migrants from Central Asia seeking work in Russia is considerable, but racism and the migration laws there make them vulnerable to intimidation and exploitation. Many prefer to stay...
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Russia, EU and ECU: co-existence or rivalry?
The creation of the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) could well enhance Russia’s position in the post-Soviet space at the expense of the EU. However, as the most important battleground,Ukraine would have...
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Change put on hold in Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstan
President Nazarbayev has been head of state in Kazakhstan for 23 years (before, and since, independence in 1991). The 2011 election effectively confirmed his life tenure, which has put the country into...
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Will Russia pivot East or West?
Russia-watchers have long been interested in her place on the international arena. Now, with China at the centre of the growing power game, the question is how Russia will seek to position herself in...
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Berlusconi’s l’amico Nursultan, and the Shalabayeva affair
Silvio Berlusconi has had lots of friends, or so he says – l’amico George (Bush), l’amico Tony (Blair), and now l’amico Nursultan (Nazarbayev) of Kazakhstan. The Shalabayeva affair has exposed the cost...
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Kazakh banking – devaluation, consolidation and bad loans
Kazakh banking is in a state of disarray, as banks assimilate the consequences of a recent 20% devaluation of the tenge. But there is also consolidation taking place, adding to the flux; and those bad...
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Behind the rise of the private surveillance industry in Central Asia
Multinational companies–including two listed on the NASDAQ–have been quietly providing Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with increasingly sophisticated surveillance technology to aid state repression.It's not...
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Phantom foreign investors for an open new Uzbekistan
A high-profile urban development project in Tashkent is designed to showcase the country for western capital. Our investigation suggests principal investors are from much closer to home. Project design...
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