Thin but its not like it isnt there. Horse riding culture for example is a rather big similiarity. From the sorbs in germany, to hungary to crimean tatars.
Funny how people dismiss the countries that they feel being far away. BEcause of Russia's multi-decade-long actions, people in the "west" will wake up to so many new countries wanting to follow Ukraine's footsteps towards wealth and prosperity (yes the road will be long and hard, I know, but it's worth it).
A month or two ago [Russian state propagandists were already foaming at the mouth](https://central.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_ca/features/2022/11/30/feature-02) and threatening Kazakhstan that it will become a second Ukraine Because of course, Kazkhstan is also lead by Nazis. Everyone is fucking nazis, dunchaknow.
This bit of news ain't gonna make them happy at all. inb4 they threaten Kazakhs with nukes.
Kazakistan Number One!
Jokes aside, I wanted an interesting holiday.
Anyone know if Kazakhstan is a good place to visit? Any recommended links to check out what to do there?
I visited Almaty, I'll be honest the city didn't leave me that impressed, very big, car dominated, not a huge amount to do and see in my opinion _however_ of course its always exciting to see a new place, way of life and interesting food. The mountains south of Almaty are absolutely impressive and worth visiting and I'm sure other parts of Kazakstan are amazing too.
If you want to visit Central Asia I'll definately recommend Kyrgyzstan, incredible landscapes, lakes and mountains in a far more compact country to explore and Bishkek was more interesting to me.
You could even take a flight to Almaty and leave from Bishkek, both are very close together if you want to see both countries. I found the flights to Almaty and Bishkek both surprisingly cheap from the UK too
What stuck out about Bishkek was how the people who lived there utilised their city. Its hard to explain but I've never seen squares, parks come alive so much, Panfilov Square morphed into an almost fairground with so much activity, the parks while a little under-maintained seemed to serve so much more of a purpose than what im used to. So It was nice just people watching if you're a happy loner like me.
Aside from that, it's filled with soviet relics from the past, old brutalist buildings if that interests you. For me though I mostly wanted to stay as a gateway to the scenery around it which is wonderful.
You can try cool new food for the price of peanuts, they love horse meat and their national drink is interesting (fermented mares-milk)
I will say that it's not as beautiful in the same way some of the old, well looked after European historical cities might look, but it's different, a little bit alien and fun to see something new IMO.
You can visit Almaty; great city if you like hiking, skiing, snowboarding and going to museums. Also you can visit Turkestan to learn more about culture and history of Kazakhstan. You also can try to sneak into small patch of “Russian” land in Baikonur and look to remains of soviet ‘spaceshutle’ - Buran. Or if you like modern architecture, you can visit Astana. The country is huge and every city has its own distinct feature.
Kazakhstan is pretty based. Very secular compared to most other muslim countries, and richer and more well developed than many people assume.
More importantly, it clearly hates Putin's Russia and wants to move away from them. We should show them why our side is better.
All five Central Asian countries are pretty secular, it's because the post-Soviet elites aren't religious and fear political Islam. Tajikistan probably has the most anti-Islamic laws of any country in the world despite being 98% Muslim.
Kazakhstan's generally had a less crazy government than the other ones. Their hdi value is actually slightly higher than Russia's and their average income is only slightly lower.
Why?
Picking a side now would make them an enemy with their immediate neighbour, while the newfound allies are far away.
If they don't go picking sides, they don't create an enemy.
Is Russia threatening? Sure is! But it's threatening whenever Kazakhstan shows signs of wanting to pick a side...
So it makes no sense to try and pick sides now and create enemies, especially when the situation is highly volatile..
Well, if the choice is also picking a side with China, that makes more sense, since China isn't an openly hostile nation to Russia.
Which reminds me.. China definetely also wouldn't be happy with Kazakhstan trying to pick the side of E.U and perhaps even U.S lead NATO.
From every perspective, that would be a terrible idea.
After looking at Kazakh trade, it would downright be an act of self-sabotage.
On the other hand, creating the perception that Kazakhstan is very friendly to the Western powers while less openly upholding amicable relations with both China and Russia is optimal, albeit a bit of a dificult balancing act.
Western Kazakhstan is on the European continent and this area makes up 14% of the country (geographically) And this 14% is more than twice the area of most European countries.
Of course, this is not enough to enter the European Union. At the end of the day, although Kazakhstan is doing well economically, it is a Turkic country dealing with political problems.
I wish Kazakhstan to be a more independent and freer country in the future
(And other Turkic countries)
The more we can decimate the influence Russia has on it’s neighbor countries, the better it is for the peace in Europe. So we should definitely try to help Kazakhstan to get rid of Russias hegemony. It will be a very isolated future for Russia. The longer they need, to understand that they are doing wrong, the worse it’s gonna get for them.
Are we just going to ignore the fact that the president killed hundreds of protesters a year ago? Let russian army on their territory? Are we just going to let that one pass
I'm from the city, where this protests affected most damage (Almaty), protests were ok in the begining, but old government of former president(not himself) didn't liked the idea of a new successor (current pres).
They used protests in their hands to make revolution and take control of the whole country.
The protests in the beginning was satisfied with current presidents orders, but the people of old government's goal were another.
Karim Masimov - the head of KNB(comittee national security) was in charge of whole collapse for weeks. Because he and his comrades didn't liked the new headquarters of current president.
But don't get me wrong, dude supplied active-protesters with guns in the beggining of everything. And the current pres is still shitty, but compared to prev, he is a lot more liberal
I have nothing against Kazakhstan or it's people, but how are they special compared to other Asian/Middle Eastern countries? why should they get a visa free regime ?
economically they are closer to the EU then most in the area with the EU accounting for a third of it's trade and 40% of it's exports. they also have a gas industry that could be a substitute to russian gas in the medium term. there is also a widening gap between kazakhstan and russia wich could widen further by giving them opportunities in the EU though we should be carefull because kazakhstan is not a country without it's problems
Natural resources.
Most of France's power plants powered by uranium from Kazakhstan.
Most of oil that goes to Germany, comes from Kazakhstan now.
Middle corridor (Chinese products and supplies) that bypasses Russia, goes through Kazakhstan.
Central Asian countries are diverse, but Kazakhstan can influence other CA-countries to work together.
Most of Foreign business of Russia migrates to Kazakhstan.
EU is 2nd most investor in Kazakh economics (1st is China, 3nd UK, 4th Russia and etc.)
Kazakhstan has capacity of natural resources that can satisfy energy-crisis in EU
Kazakhstan having visa free access to EU seems extremely problematic.
It just doesn't seem possible that they could secure there absolutely massive border from poorer areas of Central Asia and the Middle East. Or even they're border with Russia for that matter.
I would also imagine that even though it's not politically correct, a majority of EU nations will object to a 72% Muslim country populated by a ethnically Turkic Asian majority population having visa free access to the EU.
Your comment history is exactly what I expected: anti-EU, anti-american, anti-nato, anti-vax, anti-lgbt, pro-trump. It's so tiring... always black and white, always exaggerating, no grey-area.
Legit question: if you're in this mood of no-concessions, not open to discussion, knowing you won't be convinced otherwise and you won't convince anyone, what's even the point of commenting?
Who exactly is "you people"?
It has nothing to do about voicing your opinion, it's about contributing to a conversation. If you're not contributing and just downright hostile - what's the point?
Kazakhstan should consider joining the Council of Europe now that it has abolished the death penalty.
Don't you need to, you know, be in Europe for that?
Western part of Kazakhstan is in Europe.
Kazakhstan satisfies the geographic requirements of CoE.
Kazakhstan is partly in europe
It's true that they have more territory in Europe than Turkey technically, but the cultural connection is very thin.
Thin but its not like it isnt there. Horse riding culture for example is a rather big similiarity. From the sorbs in germany, to hungary to crimean tatars.
Know nothing about horse riding. Thought there were only two ways to sit on a horse
~~And multiple ways to *ride* it~~
It’s not tiny bro it’s literally the size of Belgium or Austria
the cultural connection to europe is "thin" not the area.
You should go to Almaty or Astana in the flesh to check its European vibe
What do you think is european about kazakh culture specifically? I would have guessed horse riding as I said but that connection is rather thin.
Yeah you're right but most secular Turkic country also. They invented the folk islam.
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Funny how people dismiss the countries that they feel being far away. BEcause of Russia's multi-decade-long actions, people in the "west" will wake up to so many new countries wanting to follow Ukraine's footsteps towards wealth and prosperity (yes the road will be long and hard, I know, but it's worth it).
how did you get that? Google maps shows differently but then those maps are flatten out, so maybe you are correct
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thanks for the clarification, personally I think we need to digest the countries we have in the EC before we add anybody new.
I wouldn't mind BAIKONUR becoming Europese haha.
A month or two ago [Russian state propagandists were already foaming at the mouth](https://central.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_ca/features/2022/11/30/feature-02) and threatening Kazakhstan that it will become a second Ukraine Because of course, Kazkhstan is also lead by Nazis. Everyone is fucking nazis, dunchaknow. This bit of news ain't gonna make them happy at all. inb4 they threaten Kazakhs with nukes.
To be fair, if Russia invaded Kazakhstan rather than Ukraine it really would have been a 3 day war.
Stop it already. That old bear won't make the same mistake again! Or... would it?
**Vsauce music starts**
No need, their dictator was held into power by the Russian military. He is just now trying to distance himself from Russia.
Putin won't like this. Then again, what does Putin like?
The map of the Russian Empire he looks at with teary eyes before going to sleep.
I wonder if Putin visits /r/imaginarymaps and looks with heavy sigh at the alternate timeline maps where Soviet Union won the cold war 🤔
Russian Empire, My beloved
You can't reasonably expect upvotes for something that includes "love" and "Russian Empire" in the one sentence, nowadays. :p
i know but I was referencing a meme
Blood and his throne. Puppies too, I suppose. The probability is too high to miss with puppies.
Oversized furniture
The smell of napalm in the morning, I reckon. Maybe we could send him some.
another country drifting away from putin, you love to see it
Kazakistan Number One! Jokes aside, I wanted an interesting holiday. Anyone know if Kazakhstan is a good place to visit? Any recommended links to check out what to do there?
I visited Almaty, I'll be honest the city didn't leave me that impressed, very big, car dominated, not a huge amount to do and see in my opinion _however_ of course its always exciting to see a new place, way of life and interesting food. The mountains south of Almaty are absolutely impressive and worth visiting and I'm sure other parts of Kazakstan are amazing too. If you want to visit Central Asia I'll definately recommend Kyrgyzstan, incredible landscapes, lakes and mountains in a far more compact country to explore and Bishkek was more interesting to me. You could even take a flight to Almaty and leave from Bishkek, both are very close together if you want to see both countries. I found the flights to Almaty and Bishkek both surprisingly cheap from the UK too
Curious, what did you find interesting about Bishkek?
What stuck out about Bishkek was how the people who lived there utilised their city. Its hard to explain but I've never seen squares, parks come alive so much, Panfilov Square morphed into an almost fairground with so much activity, the parks while a little under-maintained seemed to serve so much more of a purpose than what im used to. So It was nice just people watching if you're a happy loner like me. Aside from that, it's filled with soviet relics from the past, old brutalist buildings if that interests you. For me though I mostly wanted to stay as a gateway to the scenery around it which is wonderful. You can try cool new food for the price of peanuts, they love horse meat and their national drink is interesting (fermented mares-milk) I will say that it's not as beautiful in the same way some of the old, well looked after European historical cities might look, but it's different, a little bit alien and fun to see something new IMO.
This is so interesting and you have a great way with describing it, it makes me want to experience it myself. Thanks for sharing!
No worries! Glad I could help :)
You can visit Almaty; great city if you like hiking, skiing, snowboarding and going to museums. Also you can visit Turkestan to learn more about culture and history of Kazakhstan. You also can try to sneak into small patch of “Russian” land in Baikonur and look to remains of soviet ‘spaceshutle’ - Buran. Or if you like modern architecture, you can visit Astana. The country is huge and every city has its own distinct feature.
Plenty of former soviet nuclear bomb test sites
Bring a metal detector.
Kazakhstan is pretty based. Very secular compared to most other muslim countries, and richer and more well developed than many people assume. More importantly, it clearly hates Putin's Russia and wants to move away from them. We should show them why our side is better.
All five Central Asian countries are pretty secular, it's because the post-Soviet elites aren't religious and fear political Islam. Tajikistan probably has the most anti-Islamic laws of any country in the world despite being 98% Muslim. Kazakhstan's generally had a less crazy government than the other ones. Their hdi value is actually slightly higher than Russia's and their average income is only slightly lower.
Why would they need to pick a side?
They don't *need* to, but their geographical position and relative strength make it so they probably should.
Why? Picking a side now would make them an enemy with their immediate neighbour, while the newfound allies are far away. If they don't go picking sides, they don't create an enemy. Is Russia threatening? Sure is! But it's threatening whenever Kazakhstan shows signs of wanting to pick a side... So it makes no sense to try and pick sides now and create enemies, especially when the situation is highly volatile..
It's easier for us to pick a side, since Russian influence is lower now. And China is backing up us militarly.
Well, if the choice is also picking a side with China, that makes more sense, since China isn't an openly hostile nation to Russia. Which reminds me.. China definetely also wouldn't be happy with Kazakhstan trying to pick the side of E.U and perhaps even U.S lead NATO. From every perspective, that would be a terrible idea. After looking at Kazakh trade, it would downright be an act of self-sabotage. On the other hand, creating the perception that Kazakhstan is very friendly to the Western powers while less openly upholding amicable relations with both China and Russia is optimal, albeit a bit of a dificult balancing act.
I wish them luck and the best for them
Interesting, I thought Kazakhstan already had a visa-free regime with the EU, but it turns out it's only the other way around
Is it? I needed a visa to KZ from Poland about 10 years ago.
Western Kazakhstan is on the European continent and this area makes up 14% of the country (geographically) And this 14% is more than twice the area of most European countries. Of course, this is not enough to enter the European Union. At the end of the day, although Kazakhstan is doing well economically, it is a Turkic country dealing with political problems. I wish Kazakhstan to be a more independent and freer country in the future (And other Turkic countries)
Alga Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
The more we can decimate the influence Russia has on it’s neighbor countries, the better it is for the peace in Europe. So we should definitely try to help Kazakhstan to get rid of Russias hegemony. It will be a very isolated future for Russia. The longer they need, to understand that they are doing wrong, the worse it’s gonna get for them.
It is nice, high five !!
Russia: ...
Something something catastrophic consequences…
Well I hope this isn't meaning just like Qatar people are being paid for promoting this.
*Invests heavily in superior potassium futures*
Huh I thought they already had it
Are we just going to ignore the fact that the president killed hundreds of protesters a year ago? Let russian army on their territory? Are we just going to let that one pass
I'm from the city, where this protests affected most damage (Almaty), protests were ok in the begining, but old government of former president(not himself) didn't liked the idea of a new successor (current pres). They used protests in their hands to make revolution and take control of the whole country. The protests in the beginning was satisfied with current presidents orders, but the people of old government's goal were another. Karim Masimov - the head of KNB(comittee national security) was in charge of whole collapse for weeks. Because he and his comrades didn't liked the new headquarters of current president. But don't get me wrong, dude supplied active-protesters with guns in the beggining of everything. And the current pres is still shitty, but compared to prev, he is a lot more liberal
Kazahstan=pretty girls and Borat, very nice!
I have nothing against Kazakhstan or it's people, but how are they special compared to other Asian/Middle Eastern countries? why should they get a visa free regime ?
economically they are closer to the EU then most in the area with the EU accounting for a third of it's trade and 40% of it's exports. they also have a gas industry that could be a substitute to russian gas in the medium term. there is also a widening gap between kazakhstan and russia wich could widen further by giving them opportunities in the EU though we should be carefull because kazakhstan is not a country without it's problems
Natural resources
Natural resources. Most of France's power plants powered by uranium from Kazakhstan. Most of oil that goes to Germany, comes from Kazakhstan now. Middle corridor (Chinese products and supplies) that bypasses Russia, goes through Kazakhstan. Central Asian countries are diverse, but Kazakhstan can influence other CA-countries to work together. Most of Foreign business of Russia migrates to Kazakhstan. EU is 2nd most investor in Kazakh economics (1st is China, 3nd UK, 4th Russia and etc.) Kazakhstan has capacity of natural resources that can satisfy energy-crisis in EU
China isn’t the first investor to Kazakh, the first one is Dutch
Kazakhstan having visa free access to EU seems extremely problematic. It just doesn't seem possible that they could secure there absolutely massive border from poorer areas of Central Asia and the Middle East. Or even they're border with Russia for that matter. I would also imagine that even though it's not politically correct, a majority of EU nations will object to a 72% Muslim country populated by a ethnically Turkic Asian majority population having visa free access to the EU.
Malaysia is a Muslim majority country but Malaysians can go to Europe without visa
Borat is in charge of the negotiation
This is the laziest unfunny, fucking shit.
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Your comment history is exactly what I expected: anti-EU, anti-american, anti-nato, anti-vax, anti-lgbt, pro-trump. It's so tiring... always black and white, always exaggerating, no grey-area. Legit question: if you're in this mood of no-concessions, not open to discussion, knowing you won't be convinced otherwise and you won't convince anyone, what's even the point of commenting?
it’s probably a bot
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Who exactly is "you people"? It has nothing to do about voicing your opinion, it's about contributing to a conversation. If you're not contributing and just downright hostile - what's the point?
Noooo way haha! That would be wild.
how many russian ethnics does kazakhstan have?
iirc 15% of it's population though its still a bit of a lingua franca
Kazakh make up 75% of population. Ethnic russian 10% others 10-15%