Word: nazarbayev
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...where leaders are none too shy about developing cults of personality. The late ruler of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov - the self-titled Turkmenbashi, or Chief of all Turkmen - erected a golden statue of himself that rotated with the sun, and renamed days and months after family members. In Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev has had not one but two museums built in his honor. During his presidency, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was featured in children's books, his name was printed on women's underwear and portraits of him in various guises - as deep thinker, brave warrior and brawny fisherman - graced...
...think that a movie portraying their dynamic, increasingly prosperous Central Asian nation as a bunch of anti-Semitic, incestuous, pimping backwoods peasants would annoy the people of Kazakhstan. But try telling that to Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and one of Kazakhstan's leading cultural figures. Nazarbayeva - an accomplished mezzo-soprano who runs one of her country's TV networks - says that nothing before or since the tiny nation emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union has given Kazakhstan anything like the recognition generated by Borat Sagdiev. That would be Borat, the comic alter ego of British...
...That curiosity is evident among the visitors to the Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the new capital, Astana - a homage to Nazarbayev, who has ruled, unchallenged, for 17 years. The museum's biggest attraction for school outings and tourists alike are the gifts received by Nazarbayev from foreign leaders. And, says Leila Omarova, head of the museum's excursions department, "Everyone wants to know: What have the Americans given...
...gong from Malaysia, is a small glass cabinet containing Washington's gifts: four bowls - two silver, two porcelain - bearing the White House insignia, given at various times by Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Energy Secretary Samuel Bordman. Another display shows a box of 12 autographed golf balls given to Nazarbayev by Clinton...
Though much different in form and design from previous ones, this new Majilis election still failed to resolve the basic issue that worries the Kazakhstan elite and the West - whether Nazarbayev will pursue long-promised meaningful political reform and start delegating many of his unlimited powers to the Majilis, cabinet and the judiciary. The question now is whether his failure to do so will reverse the country's progress and lead it toward political stagnation and breakdown - the time-tested way that authoritarianism misfires...