Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is a landlocked country located in Central Asia that is bordered by Russia on the north, China on the east, Turkmenistan on the west, and Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the south. By size, it is the ninth-largest nation in the world at 2.7 million square kilometers (1 million square miles).

As of July 2003, Kazakhstan's population was estimated at 16.7 million. The prominent ethnicities are Kazakh (56%) and Russian (28%). The major religions are Sunni Muslim (47%) and Russian Orthodox (44%).

Kazakhstan, which had a nomadic tradition, was annexed by Russia in the late nineteenth century. In 1917, secular nationalists briefly established an independent national government which lasted from 1918 to 1920. The country then rejoined Russia as the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Kazakhstan declared full independence in December 1991 after a failed coup attempt in Moscow.

As Kazakhstan evolved from a communist Soviet republic, it developed an authoritarian form of government centered around the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev (b. 1940). Nazarbayev initially came to power in 1989 as the head of the Kazakh Communist Party and was later elected president in 1991.

Formally, Kazakhstan is a constitutional republic. The constitution was approved on August 30, 1995, by a national referendum. The president is the highest-ranking state officer and is responsible for naming the government and all other officials with the approval of the parliament. The president, who is directly elected for a seven-year term, has a great deal of authority. He or she may introduce or veto legislation and annul any existing law and is the only government official who can initiate constitutional amendments. The president may dissolve parliament and order new parliamentary elections, as well as declare states of emergency during which the constitution can be suspended. In the absence of a parliament, the president rules by direct decree. The president also controls the currency, appoints the constitutional court and other judges, names the prosecutor general, and serves as the commander in chief.

The legislative branch consists of a bicameral parliament consisting of the upper house, the Senate, and the lower house, the majlis. The Senate has thirty-nine members, and the majlis has seventy-seven members. All legislators serve six-year terms. The parliament passes legislation and may override a presidential veto. The Kazakhstan parliament may pass a vote of no-confidence, which disbands the government. The parliament can remove the president from power only in circumstances of sickness or treason.

The judicial branch of government is not independent of the executive branch. It is susceptible to bribery and corruption is rampant.

Political parties have played little role in local politics, as the government has imposed an increasing number of restrictions on them. The international community has deemed previous elections as lacking in freedom and fairness.

Freedom of the press has been severely suppressed in Kazakhstan. The government has repeatedly harassed journalists, and many media outlets have been shut down. It is also illegal for the press to criticize the president or the presidential family. Freedom of religion is allowed for the most part, except for some nontraditional faiths which are targets of government harassment. Religious groups must register with the government to be recognized legally. In short, Kazakhstan has an authoritative, nondemocratic government.

Ukraine.

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Freedom House. "Kazakhstan." Freedom in the World 2004. New York: Freedom House, 2004. <http://www.freedomhouse.org/res earch/freeworld/2004/countryratings/kaz akhstan.htm>.

"Kazakhstan." CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2004. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/kz.html>.

Olcott, Martha. Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002.

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. "Kazakhstan." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2005. <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2004/41689.htm>.

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