Below is a cut of RA’s interview with Al-Jazeera on Kazakhstan:
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Robert Amsterdam, an international human rights lawyer, said: “Kazakhstan violates the very prescriptions the OSCE believes it needs to deliver to the region.
“Kazakhstan is a one-man state, with a one-party legislature dominated by [Nursultan] Nazarbayev [Kazakhstan's president].
“The president himself has faced massive investigations for fraud, corruption and kickbacks.
They [Kazakhstan] have never had a democratic election, or anything that would appear like it.
“One can go on and on about the reasons why this country virtually defies every defining aspect of the OSCE.”
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2 Comments
Kazakhstan recently joined a Russian led customs union which also includes Belarus. I wonder if this hateful response is because Kazakhstan joined forces with Russia?
Nope, not really – that customs union is old news, and it is how Russia almost completely scuppered its carefully managed ascension to get into the WTO.There was tremendous embarrassment and outrage on behalf of both Kudrin and Lavrov when they discovered that some other clowns in the Kremlin announced they would only join the WTO as a complete trade bloc … oops! What happened to that idea?Besides, I would never have figured you to be a backer of Nazarbayev, the only U.S.-backed autocrat of Central Asia.