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In one of our previous issues, we talked about the catastrophic debt burden of Kazakhstanis. Among the reasons for the current situation, experts then called the policy of banks, which in previous years were in great honor with the country's leadership, and, as a result, received gigantic financial injections. Financial institutions used it, got rich, gave these funds at interest to customers and got rich again. But it couldn't go on like this anymore.
A new political season has started in Kazakhstan, and the country is waiting for large-scale reforms. The CSTO exercises are taking place in Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan and Tajikistan want to enrich their friendship with uranium. Who inculcates extremist views from the outside in Kyrgyzstan, and why does Turkmenistan begin the battle for the harvest with prayer? These and other regional news are in the new season of the program "In the Center of Asia" with Robert Frantsev.
Only 16% of Kazakhstanis consider themselves healthy. A unique study on the health of Kazakhstanis was conducted by the TALAP Center for Applied Research. In Almaty, people move less and sleep less, in Astana, they are more stressed and eat fast food, in Shymkent, there is a greater emphasis on fruits and vegetables, but only 7.3% of Kazakhstanis regularly visit a doctor for preventive examinations.
A major exclusive in the early days of 2024 – an interview given by the head of state, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to the Egemen Qazaqstan newspaper. The president devoted part of the detailed conversation to discussing a painful topic for the Republic - domestic violence. According to Tokayev, he "supports the tightening of punishment for domestic violence."
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz became the largest oil supply disruption in history. But the global market did not go into an uncontrolled price spiral. The shock was sharp, but shorter than the most severe forecasts had anticipated. This is a story not only about oil, but also about which forecasting methods work better under conditions of war, physical supply shortage, and high uncertainty.
Everyone was watching oil, food, and aviation kerosene. But the most durable consequences of the war manifested themselves in other sectors: fertilizers, petrochemicals, aluminum, insurance, and ocean freight. This is a story about why the loudest fears do not always turn out to be the main impact.
The Gulf War passed by Kazakhstan’s export route — but not by its economy. The real blow came not through Hormuz, but through the Black Sea, the CPC, Tengiz, and the limited capacity of alternative routes. This is the story of a country for which a high oil price proved weaker than an infrastructure disruption.
