Last year, EXPO 2017 topped the news in Kazakhstan; this year, the young country has an equally important event: the 20th anniversary of its capital city, Astana. Much attention has been drawn to the Kazakh capital in recent years, with Kazakhstan rapidly rising on the global stage. Once an unknown city in the middle of …

Being a scientist is often considered to be having an unconventional lifestyle. Constant researching, sleepless nights and chasing the unknown are typically the routine. Is anyone really up to the challenge? Is it a skill or rather a calling? EdgeKz sought answers to those questions in an interview with 30-year-old Yerbol Burashev, a researcher at …

Astana is not known internationally for its theatre life, but that reputation could change. One of the capital’s theatres is celebratinga three-digit anniversary, which shows its theatre life is not young and has every right to be amongitssignificant features. Gorky State Academic Russian Drama Theatre, in the heart of the old part of the city …

In a sign of its expanding international influence, Kazakhstan late last year entered into an historic agreement with the European Union, marking the first time a Central Asian nation has formally aligned economically and strategically with Europe to such an extent. The Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement – signed December 21 during a ceremony in …

When Kazakhstan signed a treaty along with Russia and Belarus for a new Eurasian Economic Union in May 2014, there was no shortage of optimism amongst the early signatories and no shortage of pessimism amongst the traditional observers of the former Soviet space. The new pact officially took effect eight months later, on January 1, …

Astana’s Landmarks and Schedule of Events for July 4-6 Celebrations of Astana Day Astana is Kazakhstan’s shiny, new world-class capital and each year city residents, officials and organizations celebrate this unique place. This year is no different. From July 4-6 organized celebrations will be held around the city at some of Astana’s most iconic landmarks. …

At Astana’s Nazarbayev University, Vice Dean of Research of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Elizabeth Van Wie Davis and the rest of its diverse international staff are pulling together to build something new – “the national Kazakh university,” as she describes it. The school, which has been tasked with developing a new, Kazakh …

Over the past two decades, few countries on earth have experienced the highs and lows of fluctuating oil prices like Kazakhstan. The Central Asian nation, owner of the second-largest oil reserves among former Soviet Union countries, saw a period of dazzling economic growth between the mid 1990s and late 2000s thanks in greater part to …

In the face of global economic uncertainty, crisis and falling oil prices, Kazakhstan continues to take measured steps to build an enduring, diversified economy. Among those moves was the now successful effort to involve the Kazakh public in ownership of some of the country’s most stable and successful companies. In the fall of 2011, the …

It’s no secret that Kazakhstan’s capital is also one of its coldest cities. Temperatures in Astana can fall as far as minus 50 C, making it the second coldest capital in the world after Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. However, frigid winds and temperatures far below zero aren’t enough to stop some hardy types from spending hours …