Silvio Berlusconi has had lots of friends, or so he says – l’amico George (Bush), l’amico Tony (Blair), and now l’amico Nursultan (Nazarbayev) of Kazakhstan. The Shalabayeva affair has exposed the cost of this particular friendship.
President Nazarbayev has been head of state in Kazakhstan for 23 years (before, and since, independence in 1991). The 2011 election effectively confirmed his life tenure, which has put the country into a state of suspended animation and stagnation. Change will have to wait, says Luca Anceschi
Kyrgyzstan aside, recent elections in Central Asia would appear to indicate that the regions’ leaders are aiming to stay in power for life. But what will happen to their regimes when infirmity strikes, wonders Luca Anceschi?
