Happy Birthday Kazakhstan?

16 Dec

Kazakhstan has been celebrating its 20th anniversary of independence today. In the capital Astana, President Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the country’s answer to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – Infinity Land.

In the commercial capital, Almaty, celebrations were more muted. There were few people on Old Square when Kazaxia went to have a look.

A fairly deserted Old Square in Almaty on Independence day


Trouble was reported in the west of the country in the town of Zhanaozen, which has seen a long-running industrial dispute this past year. Reports of deaths ranging from 5 – 500 remain unconfirmed at the time of publication of this blog.

Vote for Nur Otan!


Meanwhile, the revellers who headed to Old Square in Almaty were greeted by the Leader beaming down from a billboard urging citizens to vote for his Nur Otan party in next January’s parliamentary elections.

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Kazakhstan: Under-tens Hockey Brawl

14 Dec

Ice hockey is a sport that is well-known for fights on the ice, but a recent match in Kazakhstan saw the rough and tumble spread out of control with a group of nine-year olds giving it all they were worth. Click here to see the brutal brawl between the juniors from Burabay and Astana.

Ice hockey is a sport that is growing in popularity in Kazakhstan and pro team Barys Astana competes in the Continental Hockey League (KHL), Eurasia’s answer to North America’s NHL. Barys are currently fourth in the standings for the Eastern conference.

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Kazakhstan: Almaty Winter Escapes (3)

13 Dec

Winter is really on its way now in Almaty, with snow making on and off appearances and New Year decorations springing up. Kazaxia wants to share some of its favourite things to do in and around Almaty to help pass those frosty days and long nights.

Our third tip is the Tabagan leisure complex.

If you’re in need of a longer break from the fumes and noise of Almaty life, then why not consider a visit to this leisure complex located near the village of Gorny Sadovod some 17km from Almaty’s city limits on the road to Talgar. Click here for detailed directions.

A cottage at Tabagan, near Almaty

The complex features a hotel and cottages – accommodation prices vary according to the time of the week and the time of year when you visit.

There’s plenty to keep you occupied with a downhill ski run, complete with a chair lift, a small skating rink, an indoor swimming pool, sledging and horse riding on offer. Look out for the resident reindeer roaming the grounds. Après-ski is provided in the on-site restaurants and bars.

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Kazakhstan: Almaty Winter Escapes (2)

5 Dec

Winter is really on its way now in Almaty, with snow making on and off appearances and New Year decorations springing up. Kazaxia wants to share some of its favourite things to do in and around Almaty to help pass those frosty days and long nights.

Our second tip is Tau Spa Center.

This spa center is located on the road leading through the Almarasan valley to Big Almaty lake. It combines heated outdoor swimming pools and hot tubs with a Russian banya, a Finnish sauna, a Turkish steamroom and a Japanese bath. For the hardcore there’s an unheated plunge pool for some serious cooling down.  

An outdoor swimming pool at Tau Spa Center, Almaty


There are heated indoor mineral pools and three cafés on-site providing beer, vodka and shashlyk. It can get pretty crowded at weekends and look out for bling bling crosses being worn by some of the clientèle -they’re risking some serious burns in the banya!

One-off visits don’t come cheap at 10,000 tenge ($67.50), although you can buy cards for 20 visits for 100,000 tenge ($675.00) and sometimes there are offers with 5-visit cards costing 15,000 tenge ($100 but with limited validity). Bring your own towel and dressing gown unless you want to be deprived of yet more of your hard-earned cash.

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Kazakhstan: Almaty Winter Escapes (1)

1 Dec

Winter is really on its way now in Almaty, with snow making on and off appearances and New Year decorations springing up. Kazaxia wants to share some of its favourite things to do in and around Almaty to help pass those frosty days and long nights.

Our first tip is the outdoor skating rink at Medeu.

Medeu, home to one of the best winter activities in Almaty – ice skating – is an immense skating rink located at an elevation of 1,691 metres and boasts a huge space for ice aficionados.

Since it opened in 1972 more than a hundred speed skating world records have been set in the ideal conditions found at Medeu. The setting is outstanding with snowy peaks and fir tree clad hillsides visible from the ice.

It’s easy to get to Medeu from the city with the number 6 bus running regularly from the bus stop opposite the Hotel Kazakhstan on the corner of Dostyk and Kurmangazy streets.

Lord Venal and friends take to the ice at Medeu


Some seasoned Medeu skaters think that it’s not so much fun since they cracked down on drinking on the ice, although this has made the experience somewhat safer as you’re less likely to crash into other drunks on the ice!

It costs 1,600 tenge ($11.00) for a session (half price for kids and students) and if you don’t have your own skates then you can hire them for 1,000 tenge ($6.75) for two hours.

Usually there’s two sessions a day from Thursday to Sunday with a morning session from 10.00 – 16.00 (09.00 at weekends) and an evening session from 18.00 – 23.00. You can check the opening times on this site or call 3869533 in Almaty.

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Kazakhstan: The People’s Hero

29 Nov

Lord Venal would like to be one of the first to congratulate President Nursultan Nazarbayev on his being nominated for the prestigious title of People’s Hero so he sent Kazaxia this despatch

The People's Hero, The First President's Park, Almaty, Kazakhstan

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate President Nazarbyev on his nomination for People’s Hero of Kazakhstan. It is not before time that Prime Minister Karim Masimov, who nominated the president for the award, has recognised President Nazarbyev for the great leader he has been to the people of Kazakhstan over the last two decades.

In just twenty short years Kazakhstan, under the guiding hand of its wise president, has gone from being an underdeveloped land of farmers and miners to the very edge of mature country status with its ongoing bid to join the Group of Grown Up Nations (GoGUN). Its recent decision to dispense with the services of the Peace Corps only highlighted its rapid development in recent years.

By nominating the president for this illustrious award the prime minister has proved once again what a staunch ally he has been to the great leader. I look forward to witnessing in person the great strides this country will take on the road of democratisation next January as it prepares to allow another party to join Nur Otan in parliament.

With the festive season almost upon us, my colleagues and I at the Centre for Reporting and Analysing Politics would like to raise a glass to President Nazarbayev. Let’s hope that this time next year we will be toasting the award of the long overdue Nobel Peace Prize for the Leader of the Nation.

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Kazakhstan: Sau Bol Peace Corps

23 Nov

The Peace Corps’ 18-year presence in Kazakhstan was unceremoniously concluded last weekend with the sudden pull out of its remaining 171 volunteers from various projects around the country. Astana cited the reason for the abrupt departure of the volunteers as being “a rather logical step” in light of Kazakhstan’s “great progress in the political and socio-economic development over the 20 years of its independence.” A statement from the Peace Corps echoed this sentiment. 

Does this finally mean that Astana will no longer bang on about Kazakhstan being a ‘very young country’? Let’s hope so as it’s now coming up to its 20th anniversary of independence so it’s about time it took a more mature and responsible attitude.

Other reasons for the abrupt departure were mooted in this piece on Eurasianet including concerns about rape, sexual assault, possible terrorist attacks and alleged espionage.

There was also a lively debate on Registan invoving PC volunteers past and present.

Whatever the real reasons for the pull out, perhaps the Peace Corps had been moving away from its core mission in Kazakhstan – earlier this year Kazaxia was surprised to find Peace Corps volunteers working in the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, the country’s flagship secondary education project.

This school project, named, of course, after President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is well financed and even has a budget to employ English native speaker teachers in various subject areas. So why was it using the services of Peace Corps volunteers? Surely, their talents could have been better utilised in schools that weren’t all ready getting so much generous support?

Maybe the rapid development of Kazakhstan was such that there was really no longer a need for the Peace Corps in the general school system, although the new Nazarbayev Intellectual School network still needed the volunteers?

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Kazakhstan: Monument to the Leader

21 Nov

Wedding parties and sightseers in Almaty have a new must-see on their itinerary with the recent opening of a monument to President Nursultan Nazarbayev in a park named in his honour, the First President’s Park.

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The shrine has the Leader of the Nation seated atop a granite slab with eagle wings extending behind him. The wings symbolise independence – the free-spirited eagle also features on Kazakhstan’s flag – and feature scenes from Astana and Almaty.

Almaty is represented by the Kazakhstan Hotel and the TV Tower, while Astana is represented by the Pyramid (The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation), BayterekTower and Khan Shatyr. At the centre of the wings is an image of the sun god and some yurts.

Could this be the start of a mania for building monuments in Kazakhstan to the country’s long-serving president?

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Kazakhstan: Beating the Blockers!

15 Nov

Kazaxia has been working on a solution to beat the blockers in Kazakhstan and keep on blogging. With popular blog platforms such as WordPress and Blogspot blocked in the country alternatives needed to be found. A fellow blogger recommended www.blog.com, which is similar to WordPress but with some ads, and it seems to be working fine in Kazakhstan.

In future Kazaxia will be appearing on kazaxia.blog.com as well as kazaxia.wordpress.com. This means that our readership in Kazakhstan will be able to access the site without having to go through proxies.

There was an interesting article on eurasianet.org last week about the situation in Kazakhstan with regard to Internet freedom. The article looked at the recent spate of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks in the country.

The article mentioned moving to platforms such as Blogspot – it’s a shame the authors didn’t do some research within Kazakhstan. Then they would have realised how pernicious the attacks on Internet freedom have become in Kazakhstan with a host of bloggers affected by the blocking of WordPress and Blogspot.

With parliamentary elections now called for January 15 in Kazakhstan, keep on checking out Kazaxia on the addresses mentioned above for information about the transition to democracy and to follow Lord Venal’s new observation adventures.

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Blair Duped by Gaddafi Shocker

15 Nov

Recently unveiled advisor to the Kazakh government, Tony Blair, appears to have been misled by late Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi over promises to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons.

According to The Guardian

The size of the stockpile – including mustard gas – suggests Gaddafi totally misled Tony Blair when he promised to destroy weapons of mass destruction in return for being brought back in from the diplomatic cold in 2004.

Only a few days ago Blair was still in denial about his dealings with Gaddafi

At the weekend Blair, speaking on BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, defended the British rapprochement with Gaddafi on the basis that he had abandoned his weapons of mass destruction.

The Kazakh authorities must be pleased about the millions being showered over Blair and his Dream Team of 1997. He was easily duped by Gaddafi so the Astanites should have no trouble in stringing Tony along and letting him spin their message for them – all in all, money well spent.

Astana seems to be infatuated with UK politicians having already employed the services of former jailbird Jonathan Aitken to write President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s biography. Who’s next on Astana’s shopping list – what about utilising the senile first lady of UK politics Margaret Thatcher?

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