Daniyel Akhmetov stepped down as Prime Minister on Monday, after returning to work from a two-week vacation. His request to the President cited personal reasons, and most people believe he just got tired of the position and the accompanying stress. He was one of Kazakhstan’s longest serving Prime Ministers, staying in office for a good 3 years and it seemed like every December, rumours were spread that he would step down. In fact, there was a scare a few months ago in the PM’s office when it appeared that his staff was packing up. But that turned out to be either premature or entirely false.

Now what happens? Usually when the PM resigns, or after the Presidential elections, the government steps down (all the Ministers and top advisors). Then after a few days, the President with the approval of Parliament confirms a new PM and Ministers. Some people shuffle around, some people may stay in their current post and depending on the new PM and his team, some people may jump around quite a bit. Candidates for the PM are nominated by the President and approved by the Parliament. Usually the Parliament approves the first-choice, but as I remember from the Constitution if they reject three candidates, the President can dismiss the Parliament.

As for who is next, (more…)

A little after the fact, but what with the holidays, it took me a bit to track this down:
Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me an NPR comedy show about current events, featured questions about Turkmenbashi on the 6th of May 2006, with the Mayor of Washington D.C., Anthony Williams, here

A fitting tribute perhaps.

EDIT: My first post on this is here

Although there was apparently a hearing on the 25th of December, I cannot find any updates on the decision. However, the commune did recieve a statement from the Commission on Religious Affairs. The statement and reply are here.

The statement pretty clearly distributes the responsibility elsewhere by recommending that the regional akim continue to follow all relevant laws and fix any inconsistencies in laws. But recommendation three is to:

To continue the previously suspended privatization of cottages and horticultural plots of land taking into account the requirements of land legislation and architectural and town-planning legislation of RK

This would seem to indicate that the destruction can/will continue.

For the Hare Krishna commune, the commission recommends that they continue to work with the local authorities, which would seem to block any chances of their finding a court of appeals, but that they can also report to local and international media and government bodies, presenting facts objectively.

Govinda Swami answers to raise a number of questions, including, if these decisions have been made, then what is the agenda for the 22 December meeting? And, why wasn’t he invited to the commission meeting that made this decision.

Kazakhstan.NewEurasia published a link to Radio Azattyk’s review of the year from various prominent figures and an English translation here.

The opinions run the gamut from a member of Parliament showing he knows who butters his bread:The year has been very successful as it started with the inauguration of the president. My deep conviction is that there is only one politician in our country - Nursultan Nazarbaev. We are just helping him where we can.
to Andrey Chebotarev, head of the Alternativa think tank, who cited the tragedies of the year (and saw a different event as defining the year) but still saw room for hope: (more…)