Publication

This text contends that to shore up the weaknesses of his rule, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has launched a reconstruction program that he calls, familiarly enough, perestroika. By ideally transforming and streamlining the state system, Nazarbayev hopes to make his country more sustainable and survivable. However, the impediments he faces are also familiar. They include bureaucratic resistance, the opposition of specific political and business interests, the divisions that bedevil the Kazakh public, and the long shadow still cast by Russia. With troubles such as these, Nazarbayev ends up being in a tough spot. Carrying out his reforms will be as risky as giving them up.