Kazakhstan

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev blamed "criminal groups" for the deadly ethnic clashes in the southern region of Zhambyl that claimed 11 lives on February 7-8. … More than 23,000 people, mostly Dungans, fled villages where the violence erupted.

The clashes were some of the worst ethnic violence in years in the Zhambyl region, located about 130 kilometers west of Kazakhstan's commercial capital, Almaty … It was unclear what sparked the incidents, which mostly appeared to pit ethnic Kazakhs against Dungans, a Muslim group of Chinese origin.

A partial handover of political power through an orchestrated transition takes Kazakhstan into uncharted territory. Will it be able to pursue modernization and reform, and break from its authoritarian past?

Police were out in large numbers ahead of the planned unsanctioned action on September 21 in Nur-Sultan, the capital, and Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city … As crowds began to gather to voice their protests against Chinese investment and the continued influence of former President Nursultan Nazerbaev, police in each city quickly moved in to disperse them.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, in his first state-of-the-nation address following his election in June, has promised to support political competition and pluralism in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation.

Authorities detained dozens of people in Kazakhstan's two largest cities, as protesters staged the latest in a series of rallies against newly elected President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.

Police in Kazakhstan arrested nearly 4,000 people during protests before and after a June 9 presidential election, and 700 were detained for several days, the country's interior minister reported Tuesday.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has called on Kazakh authorities "to respect freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and right to political participation" following the detention of hundreds of protesters during rallies since Kazakhstan's June 9 presidential election.

[…] The election was set to confirm Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the successor to Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ran sweeping powers, and handpicked Mr. Tokayev, a diplomat, to succeed him.

Dozens of protesters have been detained across Kazakhstan as several hundred people took to the streets to call for the release of all political prisoners and a boycott of the upcoming presidential election. The May 1 protests were the largest in the Central Asia country since at least 2016, and an indication of growing discontent with the political system that has been dominated by Nursultan Nazarbaev since before the 1991 Soviet collapse.