Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Futsal Finals Come to Almaty

26 Apr

Baluan Sholak Sports Palace Almaty - venue for UEFA Futsal Cup finals 2011

Almaty will put itself on the map of international sporting events this weekend as it hosts the  UEFA Futsal Cup finals. It’s the first time ever that Kazakhstan has been chosen to host the finals of a UEFA tournament.

Local favourites Kairat Almaty will face off with Sporting Clube de Portugal on April29. Later that day SL Benfica, also from Portugal, will take on Italy’s  ASD Città di Montesilvano C/5. The winners of these two games will battle it out in the final on May 1.

Futsal is basically five-a-side football played in an indoor arena. The match consists of two halves of 20 minutes and unlimited substitutions are allowed at any time from a pool of 12 players.

Kairat are a force to be reckoned with in Futsal – it has made the semi-finals of this annual  tournament three times since 2006. Kazakh midfielder Dinmukhambet Suleimenov is confident that Kairat, which has eight Brazillians on its books, can use its home advantage and be crowned UEFA Futsal champions for 2011

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The Tulip Trail

21 Apr

It’s quiz time on Kazaxia.

Where did tulips originate?

a) Turkey b) The Netherlands c) Kazakhstan

If you answered a or b then think again as these emblems of spring originated on the hillsides of southern Kazakhstan.

Turkey has adopted the tulip as a national symbol and The Netherlands has cornered the market in cultivated tulips, but to see these flowers in their original habitat you need to head for a small village located between Taraz and Shymkent in the south of Kazakhstan.

Greigs Tulip

For a few weeks at the end of April each year, the hillsides around Zhabagly come alive with a lush coating of bright red Greig’s Tulips (Tulipa greigii), the precursor of the tulips that are grown commercially around the world.

Kaufmanns Tulip

Higher up, the more delicate Kaufmann’s tulip (Tulipa kaufmanniana) blooms until July. This tulip has pink coloured petals with a yellow colouring on the inside. It is often found close to the snowline and favours rocky mountain slopes.

Zhabagly village is the gateway to Aksu-Zhabagly State Nature Reserve, founded in 1926, is Central Asia’s oldest national park. It’s a great place to visit in spring and autumn, but can get very hot in high summer. It has a range of hiking and horse trekking options including excursions to the Aksu Gorge.

One of the best homestays in Zhabagly village is run by www.wild-natures.com. It specialises in tours to see the tulips and other local sights of interest and can arrange birdwatching and horse riding trips.


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Lord Venal’s Election Day Snaps

20 Apr

Students eager to vote despite bad weather

Babies for Nazarbayev!

Pie seller at polling station ponders how to cast her vote

Lord Venal exhausted after a hard days observing

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Aliya Nazarbayeva – The Next GooGoosha?

19 Apr

News reaches Kazaxia that Aliya Nazarbayeva, the youngest daughter of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has teamed up with Italian jewellers Damiani to produce Alsara, an exclusive collection of 30 diamond-studded pieces.

Billboards have appeared at major junctions around Almaty promoting the Alsara collection with Aliya modelling a pair of very expensive-looking dangle earrings. The brand is a combination of the names of Aliya and her mother Sara and is aimed at Kazakhstan’s high-rollers with prices ranging from 15,000 to 70,000 euros.

The collection has echoes of GULI, the jewellery brand of Gulnara Karimova, a fellow president’s daughter from neighbouring Uzbekistan. Gulnara, or GooGoosha to her adoring public, has also made herself a singing career – can we expect to hear Aliya bursting into song soon?

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Kazakhstan’s Ice Queens Mauled in Switzerland

18 Apr

Kazakhstan’s women’s ice hockey team have been taking a mauling at the world championships in Switzerland. Despite being the top team in Asia and ranked 8 in the world, the team has found itself seriously out of its depth in Switzerland.

On 17 April Canada downed the Kazakhs 7-0. The scoreline could have been worse but for the valiant efforts of 20-year-old goalie Daria Obydennova who blocked 64 shots on goal. It was an exhausting weekend for Daria – on Saturday she made 52 saves as the Kazakhs lost 5-3 to Finland.

Kazakhstan won gold in the seventh Asian Winter Games, held in Almaty and Astana earlier this year, after beating China 4-1 in the final. The scale of the task facing the Asia’s ice queens is put into perspective, however, with the fact that Canada has some 85,000 registered players whilst Kazakhstan has just 86.

There’s still an outside chance that Kazakhstan could progress to the quarter-finals if it can mange to overcome Switzerland on Tuesday 19 April. There’s hope for the Kazakhs as Canada trounced the hosts 12-0 earlier in the week.

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Five More Years!

8 Apr

Nursultan Nazarbayev was today sworn in for five more years at the helm of Kazakhstan after his crushing victory in last week’s election where he swept up 95.55% of the vote.

A huge crowd had been bussed in to cheer the President as he made his way into an arena filled with the great and good of Kazakh society. Politicians and officials  gazed on solemnly as “The Leader” hailed the stability and progress he has brought to the country in his 22 years in charge.

In the audience were the three stooges who had ostensibly run against the incumbent in the election. After taking the oath of office, Nazarbayev extolled the prosperity that the country had enjoyed in the 20 years since it emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union.

Now the task for the administration is to work on the 4.45% who didn’t vote for “The Leader” and to get the 10% of voters who stayed away from the polls to see the error of their ways and ensure 100% turnout and support in 2016.

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Take Cover – The Liquidator’s Here

7 Apr

The Liquidator is Here!

“The Liquidator,” Akan Satayev’s new film, opens today in Kazakhstan on the back of a huge publicity drive. With a barrage of posters to rival in numbers those of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s recent re-election campaign, the hype surrounding this Kazakh blockbuster has been hard to avoid.

This film tells the story of a bodyguard seeking to avenge the suspicious death of his brother. The film stars Kazakh actors Berik Aitzhanov and Aziz Beshenaliev along with British hard-man Vinnie Jones, who features in the movie as a mute hired killer.

Click here to see a trailer for “The Liquidator”

Only Vinnie was felt to bring the requisite level of menace to the venture with his track record of playing violent, sometimes deranged characters. He made his debut in 1998 in Guy Ritchie’s “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and has since cornered the market in these menacing roles.

Satayev’s first film “Racketeer” was a box-office smash in Kazakhstan in 2007. It told the story of a boxer making his way in the violent underbelly of Almaty in the chaotic 1990s. His next feature “Strayed” was in the running for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this year and dealt with the mystery surrounding a family stranded on the steppe.

His next production “Myn Bala” will go back to the past to explore the struggle between the Kazkahs and their biggest foes the Zhungars in the 18th century. In the meantime you’ll have to make do with “The Liquidator”, a tale of gory 21st century vengeance.

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Kazakhstan Election Guide

25 Mar

With just over a week to go until the presidential elections in Kazakhstan on April 3, there is little sign that the poll has caught the public’s imagination. With the main opposition party representatives either boycotting, refusing to take part or disallowed from the election, the electorate has been left a choice between four men of varying shades of grey.

Here’s Kazaxia’s guide to who’s taking part with a look at their campaign posters that are on display in the centre of Almaty. Hot favourite to win the poll is the incumbent Nursultan Nazarbayev – he’s joined in the vote by eco-warrior Mels Yeleusizov, diehard commie Zhambyl Akhmetbekov and the joker in the pack Gani Kasymov.

The Leader

The sitting president looks serious in his campaign poster that appears all over Almaty. In office since 1991, he doesn’t need any catchy slogans – his poster merely reads: “We’re voting for the Leader”. His posters are placed apart from those of his opponents as he maintains an aloof position above the rough and tumble of politics.

Mels gives commuters a hard stare

Trying to win the green vote is long-term environmental campaigner Mels Yeleusizov. Often to be found clearing up his compatriots’ litter and planting trees, Yeleusizov looks down sternly at motorists from his pedestal on a flyover in the centre of Almaty. Maybe he’s trying to prick the consciences of the jeep-driving masses as they sit in traffic on their way home.

Kazakh workers of the world unite!

The Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan, as opposed to the Communist Party of Kazakhstan which is not fielding a candidate, is presenting a gritty, working class image to the voters with blue-collar workers posing in their mines and factories.  Somewhat appropriately, their billboard is attached to the side of a building site.

The joker in the pack

The joker in the pack is Gani Kasymov, head of the pro-Nazarbayev Party of Patriots. Earlier in the campaign, he shied away from an interview with Radio Free Europe when he realised he would have to answer questions about what he stood for. His campaign poster reads cryptically “My way is the way of the people”. Is he being secretive or is it just that he doesn’t have any ideas?

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Nauryz Kutty Bolsyn!

23 Mar

Nauryz poster in Almaty

This week has seen a three-day public holiday in Kazakhstan for the Nauryz celebrations. Nauryz marks the spring equinox, when day and night are equal, and for many it’s the start of a new year.

Kids enjoying a swing on an altybakan in Almaty

The holiday is an ancient one and is celebrated by peoples with  Persian roots and in many other parts of the world such as Turkey, Pakistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus and north-western China.

Serving up a mean Nauryz kozhe in Almaty

In Kazakhstan the day is marked by drinking a milk-based soup, Nauryz kozhe, made with seven cereals such as  barley, millet and wheat added according to taste.

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