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Introducing Kazakhstan
The world’s ninth biggest country is one of its last great travel unknowns. Though the outside world is gradually becoming aware of Kazakhstan, largely thanks to its oil and the antics of that pseudo-Kazakh Borat Sagdiyev, few have really explored this country of vastly varied attractions.
Easily the most economically advanced of the ‘stans’, post-Soviet Kazakhstan is reinventing itself as a uniquely prosperous and modern Eurasian nation. The leafy commercial and social hub, Almaty, has an almost European feel with its quality hotels, slick boutiques, chic cafés and streets thick with BMWs and Mercedes. Astana, in the north, is being transformed at quickfire speed into a 21st-century capital with a unique mix of Islamic, Western, Soviet and wacky futuristic architecture. President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since Soviet times, doesn’t encourage political opposition but is managing to forge a peaceful, multiethnic nation – which makes him on the whole pretty popular.
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Latest headlines for Kazakhstan
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Fans celebrate victory in Kazakhstan
7 June 2009 2:22AM
England fans celebrate in Almaty after a 4-0 win against Kazakhstan.
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Fans' goodwill gesture to Kazakhs
6 June 2009 5:02AM
England fans get to know the locals before the World Cup qualifier in Kazakhstan
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England fans on Kazakh adventure
5 June 2009 12:30AM
As England prepare for their next World Cup qualifier, BBC Europe correspondent Chris Mason takes the temperature in Kazakhstan.
