Timeline Kazakhstan

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Emulate: http://www.emulateme.com/history/kazakhist.htm
History: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/offices-foundations/soros-foundation-kazakhstan
TravelDocs: http://www.traveldocs.com/kz/index.htm

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Kazaks make up only 40% of the country's 16-17 million people. The Great Horde broadly runs the country, the Middle Horde provides many intellectuals, and the Little Horde appears to have the oil industry locked up.
 (WSJ, 10/27/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.A16)
The capital is Astana. Kazakhstan is the size of Western Europe.
    (SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A2)(WSJ, 10/21/04, p.A17)

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c4000BCE    Apples (Malus Sieversii) similar to modern day varieties began to appear around Almaty, Kazakhstan. These ultimately produced the Red Delicious and Golden Delicious in America. The Red Delicious was hybridized into the Fuji and the Empire. The Golden Delicious was hybridized into the Gala, the Jonagold, the Mutsu, Pink Lady and Elstar.
    (WSJ, 7/3/03, p.A1)

800-300BCE    The Scythians dominated the vast lands stretching from Siberia to the Black Sea. Those who roamed what later became Kazakstan and southern Siberia were known as the Saka.
    (AM, 5/01, p.32)

1258        Feb 10, Huegu (Hulega Khan), a Mongol leader and grandson of Genghis Khan, seized Baghdad following a 4-day assault. Mongol invaders from Central Asia took over Baghdad and ended the Abbasid-Seljuk Empire. They included Uzbeks, Kazaks, Georgians and other groups. Some 200 to 800 thousand people were killed and looting lasted 17 days.
    (ATC, p.91)(AP, 2/10/99)(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A1)

1405        Feb 14, Timur, aka Tamerlane (b.1336), crippled Mongol monarch, died in Kazakhstan. In 2004 Justin Marozzi authored “Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World.”
    (V.D.-H.K.p.172)(http://au.encarta.msn.com)(Econ, 8/28/04, p.76)

1645        Mikhail Guryev, a Russian trader, founded the Ural River port city known as Guryev. It was later named Atyrau.
    (WSJ, 7/25/01, p.A1)

1832        Akmolinsk was founded. It was later renamed Tselinograd and then Akmola. In 1998 it became the capital and was renamed Astana, which means capital.
    (SFC, 5/22/98, p.A14)

1924        Stalin divided remnants of Turkestan into the current Central Asian republics.
    (SFC, 1/2/97, p.A10)

1924        Kazakhstan enacted women’s suffrage.
    (SSFC, 12/17/06, p.G5)

1930-1960    Millions of people including ethnic Germans and Russian dissidents died during this period, unable to survive starvation and torture in a network of gulag camps scattered from Russia's Arctic tundra to the inhospitable Kazakh steppe.
    (Reuters, 12/21/09)

1932-1933    Stalin imposed terror and famine on the Ukraine, Kuban and Kazakhstan that was carried out be Lazar Kaganovich.
    (WSJ, 2/14/96, p.A-15)

1936        Dec 5, Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became constituent republics of Soviet Union.
    (MC, 12/5/01)

1943        Jan 26, Nikolai Vavilov (b.1887), Soviet botanist, died in prison. In 1929 he had traced the genealogy of the apple to Kazakhstan.
    (SSFC, 5/25/08, Books p.3)(www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=54)

1944        Feb 23, Stalin ordered the mass deportation of Chechens to Kazakhstan for resisting Soviet rule and abetting the Germans. More than a third of the population died before the rest were allowed to go home.
    (WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A9)(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.A32)(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)

1944        Mar 8, The Soviet government celebrated International Women's Day by forcibly deporting almost the entire Balkar population to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Omsk Oblast in Siberia. Starting on 8 March and finishing the following day, the NKVD loaded 37,713 Balkars onto 14 train echelons bound for Central Asia and Siberia.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkars)

1947        Z.V. Togan (1890-1970) published “The Origins of the Kazaks and ôzbeks.
    (http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/paksoy-5/)

1949-1951    In Moldova SSR 2 waves of deportations were carried out, with some 40,000 Moldovans sent to Siberia and what is now Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 6/13/06)

1949-1956    Four major Soviet nuclear tests were carried out near Semipalatinsk. Higher than expected mutation rates on families in the area and their children were reported in 2002.
    (SFC, 2/8/02, p.A14)

1949-1989    Nuclear tests were carried out by the Soviets and reportedly contaminated some 500,000 local people. It was feared that nuclear waste left in boreholes and cavities beneath the surface may contaminate ground water and affect agriculture.
    (SFC,10/24/97, p.A19)

1950        Between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan the surface area of the Aral Sea was 67,000 sq. km. and shrinking
    (WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A18)

1965        Mar 3, USSR performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
    (SC, 3/3/02)

1965        The Soviet Union halted overground atomic testing.
    (Econ, 9/11/04, p.)

1967        Feb 26, USSR performed an underground nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
    (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)

c1968        The Aral Sea began shrinking after Soviet engineers diverted water from its 2 feeder streams, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya.
    (SFC, 11/30/98, p.A11)

1969        Jul 4, The USSR performed nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
    (www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)

1970        Sep 24, The Soviet Luna 16 landed in Kazakhstan, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)

1971        May 25, USSR performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk.
    (www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)

1971        A Soviet field test of weaponized smallpox caused an outbreak that killed 2 young children and a woman at the port of Aralsk. This was not made public until 2002.
    (SFC, 6/15/02, p.A8)

1972-1999    A Soviet BN-350 nuclear breeder reactor operated in the port city of Aktau over this period. It generated some 3.3 tons of weapons grade plutonium.
    (WSJ, 6/4/01, p.A19)

1973        Feb 15, The USSR launched Prognoz 3 at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to study solar flares.
    (www.astronautix.com/craft/prognoz.htm)

1977        May 29, USSR performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
    (www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)

1978        May 29, The USSR performed a nuclear test at Semipalatinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
    (www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)

1978-1996    The Caspian sea had risen 8 feet due to what experts believe was an upward thrust of the Earth’s crust beneath the inland sea. Flooding has resulted over an area of 1.5 mil acres that includes 200 oil wells in the western region.
    (SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-15)

1979        Aug 18, USSR performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
    (www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)

1983        Zoo officials in Kazakhstan reportedly claimed that a teenage elephant named Batyr could reproduce Russian to utter 20 phrases, including "Batyr is good." But there was no scientific study on the claim.
    (AP, 11/2/12)

1986        Dec 16, Dinmukhamed Kunaev, an ethnic Kazakh and long-serving head of Kazakhstan’s Communist Party, was replaced by Gennady Kolbin, a Russian outsider. 2 days of student protests followed, which were brutally put down with at least 2 deaths.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.59)

1987        Feb 26, USSR resumed nuclear testing at Semipalitinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
    (SC, 2/26/02)

1987        May 15, The Soviet space booster Energia took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a black container labeled Polyus with the Skif-DM inside. The Skif-DM was a model a future weapon. Energia performed flawlessly, but the Polyus, which was supposed to fire engines to reach a higher orbit, shot back down to Earth and into the Pacific Ocean. The Skif project came to a halt and Pres. Gorbachev did not renew it.
    (SSFC, 9/27/09, p.A24)

1987-1992    ChevronTexaco used the services of James Giffen to gain exclusive rights to study the Tengiz oil field. Kazakstan paid his Mercator corp. some $67 million from 1994-2000 for consulting work. In 2003 Giffen was indicted under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
    (SFC, 4/7/03, p.A14)

1988        Spring, Soviet germ scientists transferred hundreds of tons of anthrax bacteria into canisters with bleach and sent them for storage to Vorrozhdeniye Islamnd (Renaissance Island) in the Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
    (SFC, 6/2/99, p.A10,11)

1989        Nursultan Nazarbaev succeeded Gennady Kolbin as head of Kazakhstan.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.59)

1989        Soviet nuclear test explosions ended in Kazakhstan. Between 1949 and the cessation of atomic testing in 1989, 456 explosions were conducted at the STS, including 340 underground shots and 116 atmospheric.
    (SFC,11/20/97, p.B2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semipalatinsk_Test_Site)

1989        Kazakhstan’s population numbered about 16.5 million people. By the late 1990s it fell to 14.9 million as the economy declined.
    (Econ, 3/24/07, p.47)

1990        The shrinking Aral Sea split in two with a patch of desert in between.
    (SFC, 11/30/98, p.A11)

1991        Dec 1, Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected president of Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 12/1/12)

1991        Dec 13, Five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) agreed to join the new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) being organized by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
    (AP, 12/13/01)(www.therussiasite.org/legal/laws/CISagreement.html)

1991        Kazakhstan established independence.
    (SFC,11/20/97, p.B2)

1991        Vozrozhdeniye Island (Renaissance Island) in the Aral Sea became the property of Kazakstan and Uzbekistan.
    (SFC, 3/24/03, p.A5)

1991-2000    Kazakhstan received some $550 million in US aid during this period.
    (SFEC, 4/16/00, p.C15)

1992        Mar 2, Kazakhstan’s Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to the UN General Assembly an annual reduction of military budgets by 1% and using the money to fund UN peace projects.
    (Econ, 12/16/06, p.81)

1993        The inflation rate was 2,265%.
    (WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A18)

1994        Nov 23, A large cache of bomb-grade uranium was transferred from Kazakhstan to the United States.
    (AP, 11/23/02)

1994        Kazakhstan’s Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev elevated Akezhan Kazhegeldin, a wealthy businessman, to prime minister.
    (WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A18)

1995         Nov, The oil minister says new US and Russian players had joined the struggle to develop the Soviet republic's giant Tengiz oil field, located on the northeast edge of the Caspian Sea.
    (WSJ, 11/1/95, p.A-10)

1995         Dec, Private ownership of land was legalized. Military bases and common land remain restricted from private ownership.
    (WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-7)

1995        Kazakhstan Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev took extra power under a new constitution.
    (WSJ, 10/21/04, p.A17)

1996        Jan 2, President, Nusultan Nazarbayev was building a new Kazakh capital 600 miles north of Almaty in swampy Akmola with transfer due to begin in 1998.
    (SFC, 1/2/97, p.A10)

1996        Apr 1, The president, Nusultan Nazarbayev, once worked at the Karmet industrial complex.
    (WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-10)(WSJ, 5/2/96, p.A-1)

1996        Apr 26, The Shanghai Five grouping was created with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai. Boris Yeltsin and the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan visited Shanghai and signed a treaty with Pres. Jiang Zemin at the Jin Jiang Hotel that demarcated their borders with China.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation)(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)

1996        Jul 4, China’s Pres. Jiang Zemin began a 3-day to Kazakhstan, whose population numbered about 15 million. Zemin held talks with President Nazarbayev, and met with Kazakhstan Parliament Lower House Speaker Ospanov and delivered an important speech entitled "For a Better Future of Friendship and Cooperation Between China and Central Asia". The two sides signed a joint statement, the extradition treaty, the agreement on cooperation between the People's Bank of China and the Kazakhstan National Bank, the agreement on cooperation in quality control and mutual certification of import and export commodities and other documents.
    (Econ, 1/30/10, p.48)(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-05/21/content_879991.htm)

1997        Apr 5, Regional police reported the arrest of 7 men in Novosibirsk, Russia, who officials said planned to smuggle 11 pounds (5.2kg) of enriched uranium to Pakistan or China. The uranium was reportedly stolen from a plant in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 11/29/07)(http://tinyurl.com/3cydhn)

1996        Apr 15, The State Forestry Committee announced the creation of the Zailisky Alatau National Park, which is to cover 600,000 acres south of the capital, Almaty. The park is intended to protect such endangered species as the Tien Shan bear, the golden eagle, the Barbary falcon and the snow leopard of which there are fewer than ten in the park.
    (SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)

1996        Apr 26, The Shanghai Five grouping was created with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai. Boris Yeltsin and the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan visited Shanghai and signed a treaty with Pres. Jiang Zemin at the Jin Jiang Hotel that demarcated their borders with China.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation)(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)

1996        Jun-Jul, Swarms of locusts threatened 2 million acres of farmland in the Atyrauz and Kokchetav regions and along the Caspian Sea.
    (SFC, 6/29/96, p.C1)

1996        Aug 2, Doctors warned of a surge in TB when 56,000 prisoners are released under a government amnesty. It was estimated that 16,500 prisoners had the disease.
    (WSJ, 8/2/96, p.A1)

1996        Oct 6, It was reported that the first Chevron gas station opened. The country has 24 billion metric tons of reserves.
    (SFEC, 10/6/96, B8)

1996        Nov, The Canadian firm Hurricane Hydrocarbons Ltd. (later known as PetroKazakhstan Inc. of Calgary) won the bidding in the Kazakhstan’s first oilfield privatization. For $120 million it acquired a field producing 50,000 barrels a day with reserves of 340 million barrels. The deal was accompanied by an array of social obligations. It later faced problems with the Kazakh government over fuel pricing and environmental rules.
    (WSJ, 11/18/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.A11)

1996        Alashbayev Abdeyaziovitch, mayor of Aralsk, began to dam to separate the northern portion of the Aral Sea from the larger southern portion. This 1st attempt failed when water spilled over the top and washed away the dam.
    (SFC, 11/30/98, p.A12)

1997        Mar 27, Ella Maillart (b.1903), Swiss sportswoman and travel writer, died. She chronicled the savage collectivisation of Karakalpak agriculture in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in the 1930s.
    (Econ, 5/16/09, p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Maillart)

1997        Sep 10, It was announced that a stock exchange would open this year.
    (WSJ, 9/10/97, p.A16)

1997        Nov 8, The transfer of Kazakhstan’s capital to Akmola from Almaty was officially celebrated. The shift was in part made to move the capital away from the Chinese border.
    (WSJ, 11/10/97, p.A1)(Econ, 11/13/04, p.47)

1997        Dec, The Caspian consortium had its funds frozen in the planned pipeline to the Black Sea after Russian rights of way were found to be far from completed. Russian fears of competition with its own Urals blend crude was suspected. The consortium consisted of the governments of Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman and 8 oil companies, with most of the funding coming from the Western oil companies.
    (WSJ, 2/2/98, p.A18)

1997        Klara Serikbayeva published a new history of Kazakhstan.
    (WSJ, 10/27/97, p.A14)

1997        Oct, Mr. Nazarbayev fired Mr. Kazhegeldin as prime minister and replaced him with Mr. Balgimbayev. The inflation rate under Kazhegeldin had been reduced to around 20%.
    (WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A18)

1997        Between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan the surface area of the Aral Sea was 30,000 sq. km. and shrinking
    (WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A18)

1997        The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was initiated. The 8-member group included Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
    (www.adb.org/CAREC/default.asp)

1998        Apr, The government investment banks to sell off minority stakes in four state enterprises: 2 oil and 2 mining companies, and planned to expand its privatization program.
    (WSJ, 5/14/98, p.A14)

1998        Jun, The first module of an int’l. space station, US funded and Russian-built, was to be launched at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [it didn’t make it]
    (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A7)

1998        Jul 6, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement that divided the northern part of the Caspian seabed into Russian and Kazakh sectors.
    (SFC, 7/7/98, p.A10)

1998        Sep 10, In Kazakhstan a rocket, carrying 12 Globalstar satellites valued at $180 million, crashed shortly after takeoff.
    (SFC, 9/11/98, p.A1)

1998        Oct 29, Five nations endorsed the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan committed to the 1,080 mile conduit with a push from the US.
    (SFC, 10/30/98, p.A14)

1998        Nov 11, Argentina and Kazakhstan pledged to abide by the treaty to cut emissions of gases that cause global warming. This put a crack in a united front of developing nations opposed to cuts before 2012.
    (WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)

1998        Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
    (SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)

1998        Nov 24, Russia, Kazakhstan and a group of major oil companies agreed to build a pipeline to connect the Tengiz oil field to a Russian port on the Black Sea.
    (SFC, 11/25/98, p.A16)

1998        Alashbayev Abdeyaziovitch, mayor of Aralsk, began a 2nd attempt to dam the northern portion of the Aral Sea from the larger southern portion. The sea had shrunk to half its former size and left behind 13,000 square miles of wasteland.
    (SFC, 11/30/98, p.A12)
1998        Akezhan Kazhegeldin, former prime minister (1994-1997), set up the Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan. He was forced into exile in 1999 and in 2001 was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail for corruption and abuse of power.
    (Econ, 7/26/03, p.46-7)
1998        In Kazakhstan a law was passed that barred anyone convicted of a legal infraction from running for election. Illegal acts included insults to the honor and dignity of the president.
    (WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)
1998        Inflation in Kazakhstan was held to 1.9% for the year.
    (WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A16)

1999        Jan 10, In Kazakhstan presidential elections were scheduled. Nazarbayev won another 7-year term in rigged elections tinged with repression.
    (WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A16)(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A10)

1999        Mar 2, In Atyrau, Kazakhstan, 26 inmates stabbed themselves in the stomach in an attempted mass suicide to protest prison conditions. All survived.
    (SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)

1999        Jun, Kazakhstan sold some 40 MiG fighter jets to North Korea.
    (SFEC, 4/16/00, p.C15)

1999        Jul 7, From Kazakhstan it was reported that a rocket carrying a telecom satellite blew up and that launches at Baikonur would be suspended.
    (WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A1)

1999        Aug 12, Pres. Nazarbayev ordered the investigation of MiG sales to North Korea. South Korea charged that 30 MiG-21 jets were sold this year.
    (WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A1)

1999        Oct 27, In Kazakhstan a Proton-K booster rocket with a Russian communications satellite crashed during takeoff at the Baikonur cosmodrome and all launches were cancelled. 
    (SFC, 10/29/99, p.D3)

1999        Nov 22, Authorities detained 22 people, all members of a Russian nationalist group called Rus, on suspicion of planning a secessionist uprising.
    (SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)

1999        Kanatjan Alibekov (Ken Alibek), the former director of Soviet anthrax production in Kazakhstan, published "Biohazard."
    (SFC, 6/2/99, p.A11)

1999        The Kazakh film “Killer” by Darezhan Omirbaev starred Talgat Assetov.
    (SFC, 4/22/99, p.E4)

1999         Pres. Nazarbayev grew more self-protective after he came under suspicion of stowing funds in Swiss bank accounts. The Swiss froze over a dozen Kazakhstan bank accounts for alleged money laundering.
    (WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/6/03, p.A24)

c1999        Pres. Nazarbayev put Rakhat Aliyev, a son-in-law, into a senior position with the Tax Police and then the security agency KNB. He put Timur Kulibayev, another son-in-law, in charge of oil and gas transportation.
    (WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)

2000        Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev announced in 1998 that he was considering changing from the use of the Cyrillic alphabet to the Roman by this year in conjunction with a computerization program in the schools.   
    (SFC, 1/30/98, p.A13)

2000        May 15, A consortium of Western oil companies found a large oil reserve in the northern Caspian Sea off the coast of Kazakhstan. The 480-sq. mile Kashagan field was estimated at 8 to 50 billion barrels of oil. In 2007 it was reported that the Kashagan field contained some 12-billion barrels of oil.
    (SFC, 5/16/00, p.A14)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.43)

2000        June 22, In Kazakstan some 11,000 seals were reported found dead on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Infectious disease linked to weakened immune systems due to oil-related pollutants were blamed.
    (SFC, 6/23/00, p.D3)

2000        Jul 30, In Kazakstan the last nuclear test facility was destroyed with a controlled detonation of 100 tons of explosives.
    (SFC, 7/31/00, p.A14)

2000        Nov 22, A $2.5 billion oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on the Black Sea was reported completed by an int’l. consortium. Pumping of 600,000 barrels per day was expected to begin in 2001.
    (SFC, 11/23/00, p.D5)

2001        Feb 12, Italy’s ENI SpA won the right to operate the Kashagan oil field.
    (WSJ, 2/13/01, p.A18)

2001        Feb, Core samples indicated that the Kashagan oil field measured at least 25 miles across.
    (WSJ, 3/5/01, p.A14)

2001        Mar 26, In Kazakstan the Caspian Pipeline Consortium began pumping crude oil from the Tengiz field to Novorossiisk, Russia’s Black Sea port. The 990-mile Tengiz-Novorossisk oil pipeline was owned by Kazakstan, Russia, Oman and 8 oil companies. Chevron held 15% in the 12-partner consortium.
    (WSJ, 2/26/01, p.A14)(SFC, 3/27/01, p.C4)

2001        Apr 19, It was reported that the 2 largest banks planned to merge in a deal that would extend the reach of Pres. Nazarbayev’s family.
    (WSJ, 4/19/01, p.A13)

2001        May 17, A fire in a 26-story hotel in Almaty killed 4 people.
    (SFC, 5/18/01, p.D4)

2001        Jun 15, The Shanghai Five member nations (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia), having admitted Uzbekistan, signed the Declaration of Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation)

2001        Sep 24, Kazakstan offered air and military bases to the US for attacks on Afghanistan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were said to be negotiating use of their territory by the US.
    (SFC, 9/25/01, p.A6)

2001        Oct 21, In Kazakstan a 3-person Russian-French crew blasted off for the Int’l. Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The crew included Claudie Haignere, who in 1996 became the 1st Frenchwoman in space.
    (SFC, 10/22/01, p.B2)

2001        Nov, Government troops closed the Karavan Newspaper and raided  KTK-TV and other facilities associated with Rakhat Aliyev, son-in-law to Pres. Nazarbayev. Aliyev was later sent off as ambassador to Austria.
    (WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A1)

2001        Dec 21, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Nazarbayev of Kazakstan and signed documents “related to transportation connections.”
    (SFC, 12/22/01, p.A5)

2002        Jan 31, It was reported that the US and Kazakstan planned a joint venture to use a former Soviet nuclear weapons plant to process uranium for power plants and absorb atomic workers.
    (WSJ, 1/31/02, p.A1)

2002        Mar, The government arrested Mr. Ablyazov, a publishing and banking tycoon and leading government critic. In July he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for embezzling $3.6 million from the state.
    (WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)

2002        Apr 28, US Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld visited Pres. Niyazov in Turkmenistan and Pres. Nazarbayev in Kazakstan.
    (SFC, 4/29/02, p.A9)

2002        May 12, In Kazakstan a roof collapsed at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Russia’s main space launch site. 8 workers were feared killed.
    (SFC, 5/13/02, p.A6)

2002        May, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an accord over the northern half of the Caspian Sea.
    (WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A8)

2002        Jun 3, A 16-country summit of Central Asian leaders opened in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
    (SFC, 6/3/02, p.A1)

2002        Aug, Galimzhan Zhakianov, a provincial governor and government critic, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for selling state enterprises at illegitimately low prices.
    (WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)

2002        Oct 22, A ferry carrying 51 people and a shipment of oil sank in rough weather in the Caspian Sea. One report said five onboard the ferry were rescued. The Mercury II freight and passenger ferry was making its way from the port of Aktau, Kazakhstan, heading southwest to the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
    (AP, 10/22/02)(WSJ, 10/23/02, p.A1)

2002        Nov 26, The Astra-1K satellite was launched atop a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. The world's largest communications satellite, manufactured by France's Alcatel Space corporation for Societe Europeene des Satellites of Luxembourg, was lost after it went into the wrong orbit.
    (AP, 11/26/02)(WSJ, 11/27/02, p.A1)

2002        Dec 11, It was reported that the US had filed allegations that tens of millions of dollars paid by American oil companies to Kazakstan during the 1990s wound up in Swiss bank accounts of top Kazakstani officials.
    (SFC, 12/11/02, p.A15)

2002        In Kazakhstan former government employees and businessmen created a new political party, Ak Zhol.
    (Econ, 6/26/04, p.46)

2003        Feb 2, In Kazakstan Progress M-47 lifted off atop a Soyuz-U rocket to deliver supplies to the int’l. space station.
    (SFC, 2/3/03, p.A5)

2003        Jun 11, Kazakhstan's PM Imangali Tasmagambetov resigned after a prolonged battle with parliament over a land reform bill that would allow private land ownership in the former Soviet republic.
    (AP, 6/11/03)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.40)

2003        Jun 20, Kazakhstan's parliament passed a bill allowing private ownership of land for the first time in this vast former Soviet republic.
    (AP, 6/20/03)

2003        Sep 23, China signed agreements with Russia and four Central Asian neighbors (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan) in an effort to strengthen a 7-year-old security alliance and encourage economic links across a largely undeveloped region.
    (AP, 9/23/03)

2003        Oct 18, Russia launched a Soyuz capsule from Kazakhstan with a 3-man crew for the int'l. space station. Aboard were an American, a Russian and a Spaniard.
    (SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A2)

2003        Oct 28, A Soyuz space capsule with 3 astronauts landed in Kazakhstan.
    (SFC, 10/28/03, p.A1)

2003        Kazakhstan decided to create a full-fledged navy to help protect its oil interests on the Caspian Sea.
    (Econ, 10/11/03, p.46)

2003        James Giffen, a US oil consultant, was indicted in the US under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was charged with accepting bribes from US companies to gain access to Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oil field. Giffen claimed he was working as a US intelligence asset.
    (WSJ, 5/12/08, p.A6)

2004        Jan 9, Russia and Kazakhstan extended Moscow's lease of the launching pad in Baikonur until 2050. It served as the only link to the troubled International Space Station.
    (AP, 1/9/04)

2004        Mar 12, Chinese state media reported that a 1,930-mile railway project to link China and Europe was announced by Kanat Zhangaskin, vice president of the Kazakhstan National Railway Co.
    (AP, 3/12/04)

2004        May 17, China and Kazakhstan agreed to build a 744-mile crude oil pipeline to send an initial 10 million tons of Kazakh oil to Xinjiang by 2006.
    (WSJ, 6/17/04, p.A16)

2004        Aug 28, The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan approved Russian membership to their economic block at talks in Astana, the Kazakh capital.
    (AP, 8/28/04)

2004        Sep 19, Kazakhs chose a new parliament expected to be dominated by Otan, the party of Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev and Asar, a new party run by his daughter. US backed int’l. monitors called the elections to the 77-seat Mazhilis flawed.
    (AP, 9/19/04)(WSJ, 9/22/04, p.A1)(Econ, 9/25/04, p.55)

2004        Sep, Construction began on a 620-mile pipeline to take oil from eastern Kazakhstan into China’s western Xinjiang region.
    (Econ, 11/13/04, p.46)

2004        Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule, carrying 2 Russians and an American, landed in Kazakhstan. The crew had spent 6 months at the int’l. space station.
    (SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A7)

2004        Nov 28, In Kazakhstan 2 powerful blasts rocked the headquarters of President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling Otan (Fatherland) party in Almaty's busy central district.
    (Reuters, 11/28/04)

2004        Dec 5, In Kazakhstan 23 people died and three others were injured in an explosion at a coal mine in the Karaganda region.
    (AP, 12/5/04)

2005        Jan 1, Kazakhstan was forecast for 7.9% annual GDP growth with a population at 15 million and GDP per head at $3,170.
    (Econ, 1/8/05, p.91)

2005        Apr 18, The annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients included Kaisha Atakhanova of Kazakhstan for fighting the import of nuclear waste.
    (SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)

2005        May 25, In Azerbaijan officials opened the first section of a $3.6 billion, 1,100-mile pipeline that will carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey were on hand for the ceremony at the Sangachal oil terminal.
    (AP, 5/25/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.B2)

2005        Jul 5, An alliance of Russia, China and central Asian nations called for the US and coalition members in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from member states, reflecting growing unease over America's regional military presence. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
    (AP, 7/5/05)

2005        Sep 29, Editors of five Kazakh opposition newspapers ended a hunger strike after reaching a deal with a new printing house that would allow them to return to business after being forced to shut down.
    (AP, 9/29/05)

2005        Oct 3, The UN ambassadors of Britain, France and the US sent a letter emphasizing their continued opposition to a proposal to create a nuclear-weapons free zone in Central Asia. The letter, sent to the UN ambassadors of the five Central Asian nations, says that a draft treaty to create the zone still does not address their biggest concerns and that further discussions are needed. It calls for consultations "very soon." The five nations agreed to the draft text for a Central Asian nuclear-free zone in February. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan had originally put forward a proposal for a nuclear-weapon free zone in 1997, but divisions both internal and external over the text have stalled progress. Moscow claims that a 1992 treaty that Russia signed with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan could allow missiles to be deployed in the region.
    (AP, 10/4/05)

2005        Oct 11, US millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a two-man, Russian-American crew returned from the international space station to Earth in a swift, bone-jarring descent in Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 10/11/05)

2005        Oct 18, It was reported that a leading pro-opposition news website in Kazakhstan has been closed by court order and others have experienced technical problems in the run-up to a presidential election in the Central Asian state.
    (Reuters, 10/18/05)

2005        Nov 12, In Kazakhstan Zamanbek Nurkadilov (61), an outspoken critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev was found shot to death in his home.
    (AP, 11/13/05)

2005        Dec 4, Oil-rich Kazakhstan voted in a presidential election widely expected to give Nursultan Nazarbayev another seven-year term.
    (AP, 12/04/05)

2005        Dec 5, Opposition leaders in Kazakhstan said that the overwhelming re-election of President Nursultan Nazarbayev should be declared invalid, and foreign observers said the balloting did not meet international standards.
    (AP, 12/05/05)

2005        Dec 7, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev was officially declared the winner of last weekend's election, while the opposition insisted the vote was manipulated.
    (AP, 12/07/05)

2005        Dec 13, The authorities in Kazakhstan, angered by a British comedian's satirical portrayal of a boorish, sexist and racist Kazakh television reporter, confirmed that they have pulled the plug on his alter ego's Web site. Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat in his "Da Ali G Show" and last month he used the character's Web site www.borat.kz to respond sarcastically to legal threats from the Central Asian state's Foreign Ministry.
    (AP, 12/13/05)

2005        Dec 15, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ceremonially opened the taps of a new pipeline carrying oil from one of the region's greatest energy powers to one of its hungriest consumers, China.
    (AP, 12/15/05)

2005        Dec 28, The EU launched the first satellite in its Galileo navigation program, which officials expect one day will end the continent's reliance on the US Global Positioning System. A Soyuz rocket, launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carried the 1st of an expected 30 satellites.
    (AP, 12/28/05)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.53)

2006        Jan 6, The Kazakhstan Parliament voted to ditch the Central Asian state's old national anthem in favor of "My Kazakhstan," a song written in 1956 and adapted by Pres. Nazarbayev.
    (AP, 1/6/06)

2006        Jan 16, Galymzhan Zhakiyanov (41), a Kazakh opposition leader jailed for more than three years, returned home, to the cheers of hundreds of supporters. The leader of the now-disbanded Democratic Choice party, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2002 on abuse-of-office charges.
    (AP, 1/16/06)

2006        Feb 11, Altynbek Sarsenbayev (43), a Kazakh former minister and leading member of the political opposition, was abducted in Almaty. He was found shot dead 2 days later along with his bodyguard and driver later near Almaty. Sarsenbaev held a senior position in Alban, a subdivision of the Elder Horde, one of Kazakhstan’s 3 great traditional tribal groupings. Relatives and supporters of Sarsenbayev accused authorities of covering up for those behind the high-profile killing as 10 defendants faced trial on June 15.
    (AP, 2/13/06)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.44)(AP, 6/14/06)

2006        Feb 21, Kazakhstan's intelligence agency said that five of its employees were among the six arrested suspects in the Feb 11 murder of Altynbek Sarsenbayev, a leader of the opposition Nagyz Ak Zhol party.
    (AP, 2/21/06)

2006        Feb 22, Kazakhstan's intelligence chief resigned after several of his subordinates were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the slaying of an opposition leader. Erzhan Utembaev, the top administrative official of the Senate, was arrested for ordering the murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev.
    (AP, 2/22/06)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.40)

2006        Apr 9, A capsule carrying a Russian, American and Brazilian landed in Kazakhstan following a weeklong trip to the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SSFC, 4/9/06, p.A3)

2006        May 5, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Kazakhstan for talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Cheney promoted export routes for vast oil and gas reserves that would bypass Russia and supply the West directly.
    (AP, 5/5/06)(SFC, 5/6/06, p.A3)

2006        Jun 15, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Russian and Chinese-led bloc of Asian states, said it plans to set up an expert group to boost computer security and help guard against threats to their regimes from the Internet. SCO members (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) are mostly authoritarian states that maintain tight controls on communications technology, including the Internet.
    (AP, 6/15/06)

2006        Jun 18, Kazakhstan launched its first satellite into orbit.
    (SFC, 6/19/06, p.A3)

2006        Jul 4, The parties of Kazakhstan's leader and his eldest daughter announced a merger, a move that tightens President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grip on power.
    (AP, 7/4/06)

2006        Jul 14, In Kazakhstan police under Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov moved in to destroy the illegal Shanyrak settlement on the outskirts of Almaty. 30-40 people on each side were injured. A policeman died after being doused with petrol and set on fire.
    (Econ, 8/5/06, p.39)

2006        Jul 17, The presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan agreed at the G8 summit to create a joint venture to process natural gas from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas field.
    (AP, 7/17/06)

2006        Sep 9, Five central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) signed a nuclear-free zone treaty, but it did not cancel out a 1992 agreement to allow Russia to transport and deploy nuclear weapons there under certain circumstances.
    (SSFC, 9/10/06, p.A18)

2006        Sep 11, Kazakhstan hosted the Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana.
    (Econ, 12/16/06, p.81)(www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7191&geo=3&size=A)

2006        Sep 18, Anousheh Ansari (40), an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, took off on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station, becoming the world's first paying female space tourist. Aboard the space station, an oxygen generator overheated and spilled a toxic irritant, forcing the crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
    (AP, 9/18/07)

2006        Sep 20, In northern Kazakhstan a methane explosion tore through a coal mine, killing 41 miners. Seven miners were pulled out alive and hospitalized after it ripped through the Lenin mine in the town of Shakhtinsk.
    (AP, 9/20/06)(AP, 9/21/06)

2006        Sep 28, It was reported that the industrial city of Shymkent, Kazakhstan, was reeling after learning that at least 63 children had contracted AIDS through medical negligence many blame on corruption and the illicit sale of blood. At least five infected toddlers had died after receiving injections or blood transfusions. Parents said regional health officials were aware of the outbreak in March, and have been trying to cover it up by pulling pages from the infected toddlers' treatment records to eliminate any mention of blood transfusions.
    (AP, 9/28/06)

2006        Sep 29, Pres. Bush met with Kazakhstan’s Pres. Nazarbayev and praised him. The meeting was criticized as an unseemly gesture to an oil-rich ruler who tolerates no dissent.
    (WSJ, 9/30/06, p.A1)

2006        Oct 26, China’s state controlled Citic Group said it has reached an agreement to buy an oil field in Kazakhstan from Canada’s nations Energy for $1.9 billion.
    (WSJ, 10/27/06, p.A10)

2006        Nov 10, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the ruling Otan Party would merge with the pro-government Civic Party in what the opposition described as part of efforts to ensure his grip on power in upcoming parliamentary elections.
    (AP, 11/10/06)
2006        Nov 10, Asian nations reached their first international agreement to implement what has been dubbed the "Iron Silk Road." Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and seven other nations agreed to meet at least every two years to identify vital rail routes, coordinate standards and financing and plan upgrades and expansions, among other measures. The UN first conceived the Trans-Asian Railway Network in 1960.
    (AP, 11/10/06)

2006        Nov 3, The film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” opened nationwide in the US.
    (Econ, 11/11/06, p.68)(www.premiere.com/moviereviews/3082/borat.html)

2006        Dec 3, Andris Piebalgs, the EU Energy Commissioner from Latvia, signed an accord on nuclear cooperation with Kazakhstan. The EU hoped to increase Kazakhstan uranium sales to the EU from 3% to 20%.
    (WSJ, 12/4/06, p.A6)

2006        The mineral firm Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation PLC (ENRC) listed for public trading in London. The firm, partly owned by the government of Kazakhstan, was founded by three central Asians who bought ex-Soviet factories at discount prices and quickly became billionaires. ENRC was formed in 1994, listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and delisted after a near six-year spell in November 2013. A secondary listing and subsequent de-listing also took place on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Natural_Resources_Corporation)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.74)
2006        Kazakhstan’s population of 15.2 million currently included 59% native Kazakhs and 26% Russians.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.59)

2007        Jan 8, Daniyal Akhmetov, the PM of oil-rich Kazakhstan, resigned in the wake of criticism of his performance by the heavy-handed president of the Central Asian country. Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan as president since its independence in 1991, regularly replaced his prime ministers as he tried to secure his position and balance interests of various powerful elite groups.
    (AP, 1/8/07)

2007        Jan, In Kazakhstan police arrested a manager of the Atyrau Balyk cannery, charging him and 3 colleagues, who had fled to Russia, with poaching. The cannery had a monopoly in exporting Kazakhstan’s CITES-approved quota of sturgeon. An expert estimated that poaching on the Ural River could eliminate the sturgeon in 5-10 years.
    (SFC, 6/24/07, p.A2)

2007        Apr 7, Emergency officials said 247 dead seals have washed up on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan in the past week.
    (AP, 4/7/07)
2007        Apr 7, A Russian rocket carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan, sending Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts soaring into orbit on a two-day journey to the international space station.
    (AP, 4/7/07)

2007        Apr 21, Charles Simonyi, an American billionaire who paid $25 million for a 13-day trip to outer space, returned to Earth in a space capsule that also carried a cosmonaut and an American astronaut, making a soft landing on the Kazakh steppe.
    (AP, 4/21/07)

2007        May 2, Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Agency said hundreds of dead seals have washed up on its Caspian Sea shoreline in the past several days, bringing the total number of the animals found dead along the shoreline in recent weeks to 832.
    (AP, 5/2/07)

2007        May 12, The leaders of Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan reached a landmark pipeline deal that will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asia's energy export routes.
    (AP, 5/12/07)

2007        May 16, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed limited political reforms in the oil-rich country he has headed since the Soviet era, including shortening the presidential term from seven years to five and strengthening the powers of parliament.
    (AP, 5/16/07)

2007        May 18, Kazakhstan's veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev was in effect declared president-for-life in a move condemned by the nation's opposition as undemocratic.
    (AP, 5/18/07)

2007        May 21, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nazarbayev (66) approved a constitutional amendment that waives presidential term limits and allows him to seek the top post indefinitely.
    (AP, 5/22/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.42)

2007        May 26, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his son-in-law, diplomat Rakhat Aliyev, after Aliyev challenged the Kazakh leader by declaring he intended to run for the presidency.
    (AP, 5/26/07)

2007        May 28, Kazakh authorities issued an international arrest warrant for the powerful son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who faces abduction charges and has publicly criticized the longtime leader.
    (AP, 5/29/07)

2007        Jun 1, Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh ambassador to Austria until he was dismissed on May 26, was arrested for alleged involvement in the suspected kidnapping of two senior managers of a bank he controls. He appealed to Austrian authorities not to extradite him to his homeland to face kidnapping charges.
    (AP, 6/2/07)

2007        Jun 11, Officials gathered in Kazakhstan for a 2-day meeting of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. 37 of 51 Global Initiative partner nations, along with the IAEA and European Union as observers, assessed current plans to enhance the partnership capacity of Global Initiative nations and discussed new ways to combat nuclear smuggling and other terrorist acts. 2 days of talks produced a 10-year action plan.
    (Econ, 6/16/07, p.68)(www.usembassy.kz/)

2007        Jun 27, A Kazakhstan court convicted 21 medical workers for their roles in infecting scores of children with the virus that causes AIDS in a case that has outraged the country. Health officials said 118 children and 14 mothers have been confirmed as contracting HIV. The Shymkent district court gave suspended sentences to five senior health officials. 16 medical workers were sentenced to prison sentences of up to five years.
    (AP, 6/27/07)

2007        Jul, Authorities in Kazakhstan slapped a $609 million fine on a Chevron-led consortium developing the Tengiz oil field. The Kazakh ecological ministry cited environmental breaches stemming from the stockpiling of sulfur between 2003 and 2006. The consortium stripped sulfur from Tengiz oil, which is laced with hydrogen sulfide gas, and stored it as pellets in massive facilities, for later use in fertilizer.
    (WSJ, 10/4/07, p.A9)

2007        Aug 8, An Austrian federal court rejected Kazakhstan's request to have its ex-ambassador to Austria, a former son-in-law of the Central Asian nation's autocratic president, extradited to face kidnapping charges in his homeland.
    (AP, 8/8/07)

2007        Aug 17, The six members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held their first joint maneuvers on Russian land in a demonstration of their growing military ties and a shared desire to counter US global clout. The presidents of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan attended the unprecedented joint military exercises in Chelyabinsk near the Kazakh border.
    (AFP, 8/17/07)

2007        Aug 18, Kazakhs headed to the polls in parliamentary elections seen as a key test of authoritarian Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's pledge to boost democracy in this oil-rich nation. Nur Otan, the party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, won all 98 available seats in the lower parliament. The tally was quickly condemned by the opposition.
    (AFP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)

2007        Aug, China’s President visited Kazakhstan. Soon after it was announced that a new oil pipeline would be built from Kazakhstan to China, and that a new gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan with China would run through Kazakhstan.
    (Econ, 8/25/07, p.54)

2007        Sep 6, An unmanned Russian rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after liftoff, sending parts crashing in an uninhabited part of Kazakhstan and triggering concerns about environmental damage.
    (AP, 9/6/07)

2007        Oct 10, A Russian rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch pad, carrying 3 astronauts to the international space station. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur, left Earth alongside Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. Shukor was selected from among 11,000 Malaysian candidates to fly aboard the ISS in a deal his government arranged with Russia as part of a $1 billion purchase of Russian fighter jets. Whitson will be the first woman to command the outpost.
    (Reuters, 9/20/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A8)

2007        Oct 20, In Kazakhstan the opposition staged a demonstration in Almaty against rising prices as people hoarded food supplies and emptied shops.
    (Econ, 10/27/07, p.52)

2007        Nov 30, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OECD) awarded its rotating chairmanship in 2010 to Kazakhstan.
    (Econ, 12/8/07, p.50)

2007        Corruption ratings for this year by Transparency International placed Kazakhstan at 150th out of 180 countries.
    (Econ, 4/12/08, p.49)

2007        US federal officials alleged that $84 million held in Swiss bank accounts stem from bribes paid by US companies to Kazakhstan’s president and other top officials for access to energy reserves. The money was frozen as an investigation continued.
    (WSJ, 5/12/08, p.A6)

2008        Jan 11, In Kazakhstan a methane gas explosion ripped through a coal mine, owned by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, killing at least 30 miners.
    (AP, 1/11/08)(AFP, 1/13/08)

2008        Jan 14, Kazakhstan’s state oil company Kazmunaigas said it has ended a long-running conflict with a group of Western majors over ownership of the Kashagan oil field, one of the world's largest new deposits.
    (AFP, 1/14/08)

2008        Feb 1, The US promised Kazakhstan to help it bring its armed forces up to NATO standards in a new military cooperation pact certain to irritate Russia.
    (AP, 2/1/08)

2008        Apr 2, In Kazakhstan Zhaksybek Kulekeyev, a former government minister and head of the state railway company, was formally charged with taking a $100,000 bribe.
    (Econ, 4/12/08, p.49)

2008        Apr 8, A Russian capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut and two cosmonauts blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, en route to the international space station.
    (AP, 4/8/08)

2008        Apr 15, Kazakhstan joined other Black Sea grain exporters in curbing shipments to combat double-digit inflation. Wheat exports were suspended until Sep 10. Kazakhstan will become the world’s 5th largest wheat exporter this year, shipping half its record 2007 crop.
    (WSJ, 4/16/08, p.A8)

2008        Apr 19, In northern Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule, carrying South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, landed 260 miles off its mark.
    (AP, 4/19/08)

2008        Jun 28, Ruslana Korshunova (20), a European Vogue cover model, fell to her death from her Manhattan apartment building in an apparent suicide. She was originally from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 6/29/08)

2008        Jul 21, Rakhat Aliyev, the ex-son-in-law of Kazakhstan Pres. Nazarbayev, accused the president of diverting billions in state assets and other corruption.
    (WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)

2008        Oct 5, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. and Texas-based ConocoPhillips said they have signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s national oil company to drill in a potentially lucrative region in the Caspian Sea.
    (SFC, 10/6/08, p.D1)

2008        Oct 12, A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan for the international space station. The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carried American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
    (AP, 10/12/08)

2008        Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule carrying an American and two Russians touched down on target in Kazakhstan after a descent from the international space station, safely delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space.
    (AP, 10/24/08)

2009        Jan 12, Kazakh PM Karim Masimov told his ministers to start personal blogs to get them closer to the people of the former Soviet state.
    (AP, 1/12/09)

2009        Jan 15, Kazakh lawmakers approved legislation to guarantee at least two political parties are represented in parliament, a move designed to improve the Central Asian nation's tarnished democratic credentials.
    (AP, 1/15/09)

2009        Jan 20, The head of US Central Command said the US has struck deals with Russia and neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American troops in Afghanistan through their territory. US officials have said that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and then through Uzbekistan.
    (AP, 1/20/09)

2009        Jan, In Kazakhstan newspaper editor Ramazan Yesergepov was arrested and charged with revealing state secrets in a move that has tarnished the ex-Soviet nation's democratic credentials as it prepared to assume the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). His arrest came after he published correspondence in the small-circulation weekly Alma-Ata Info that appeared to show collusion in corruption between a Kazakh businessman and the National Security Committee, the successor agency to the KGB. On August 8 Yesergepov was sentenced to three years in prison.
    (AP, 8/13/09)

2009        Feb 4, Kazakhstan allowed its currency to devalue 25% in an effort to protect its foreign exchange and gold reserves amidst falling oil prices.
    (WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A6)
2009        Feb 4, Russia sought to bolster its security alliance with six other ex-Soviet nations (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) by forming a joint rapid reaction force in a continuing effort to curb US influence in energy-rich Central Asia.
    (AP, 2/4/09)

2009        Feb 10, An unmanned Russian cargo ship lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying supplies and a space suit to the international space station and its three-member crew. American astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus are aboard the station along with Russian Yuri Lonchakov. The crew size will be doubled to six members later this year.
    (AP, 2/10/09)

2009        Feb 26, Kazakhstan announced it was pulling out of the Central Asian power grid to protect its energy supplies, a move that forced rolling blackouts and electricity rationing on Kyrgyzstan, its tiny, power-starved neighbor.
    (AP, 2/26/09)

2009        Feb, Kazakhstan nationalized BTA Bank, the largest bank in the country. Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov was stripped of his position and left the country for exile in London. Over a dozen more bank managers were arrested and awaited trial for alleged racketeering and money laundering.
    (Econ, 6/20/09, p.40)

2009        Mar 26, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian-American crew and US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi blasted off for the international space station.
    (AP, 3/26/09)

2009        Apr 8, A Russian spacecraft carrying a crew of three including US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi landed safely in Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 4/8/09)

2009        Apr 23, A Kazakh court jailed the publisher of an opposition newspaper for failing to pay damages in a libel case that government critics contend is politically motivated.
    (AP, 4/23/09)

2009        May 7, Russian Mission Control said the unmanned Progress M-02M lifted off from Kazakhstan on schedule and should dock with the int’l. space station on May 12.
    (AP, 5/7/09)

2009        May 27, A Russian space capsule, carrying Canadian Bob Thirsk, Russian Roman Romanenko and Belgian Frank De Winne, blasted off from Kazakhstan for a 2 day journey to the ISS.
    (SFC, 5/28/09, p.A2)

2009        May, In Kazakhstan Mukhtar Dzhakishev, head of the state nuclear agency (Kazatomprom) and friend of recently deposed banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, was arrested and charged with stealing uranium deposits. 8 of his associates were also arrested.
    (Econ, 6/20/09, p.40)

2009        Jun 16, China’s Pres. Hu Jintao announced a $10 billion loan to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, founded in 2001. The SCO grouped China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
    (http://tinyurl.com/pr5v65j)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.51)

2009        Jul 19, In Kazakhstan    more than 5,000 ethnic Uighurs rallied in Almaty to protest China's use of deadly force to quash Uighur protests this month.
    (AP, 7/19/09)

2009        Jul 24, In Iran a Russian Ilyushin-62 plane, operated by Tehran-based Aria Airlines and carrying 153 passengers and crew, skidded off the runway and hit a wall while landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad. 13 of the 16 people killed in the crash were members of the crew, 9 of them from Kazakhstan. The plane landed at high speed and the tires failed.
    (AP, 7/25/09)

2009        Sep 3, In Kazakhstan a court convicted Yevgenii Zhovtis of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced him to 4 years in prison. Zhovtis, Kazakhstan’s best known human rights activists, claimed he had been blinded by the lights of an oncoming car when he hit a hit and killed a pedestrian on a country road late at night.
    (Econ, 9/12/09, p.46)

2009        Sep 13, In southeast Kazakhstan 37 people were killed when a fire ripped through a decrepit drugs treatment facility in Taldykorgan.
    (AFP, 9/13/09)

2009        Sep 30, In Kazakhstan Canadian circus billionaire Guy Laliberte blasted off in a Russian Soyuz spaceship to become the world's seventh space tourist.
    (Reuters, 9/30/09)

2009        Oct 6, In Kazakhstan French President Nicolas Sarkozy scored a diplomatic coup during a visit, overseeing an agreement to allow military hardware for French forces fighting in Afghanistan to pass through Kazakh territory and clinching a raft of lucrative energy deals.
    (AP, 10/6/09)

2009        Oct 11, The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two other space travelers landed safely in Kazakhstan, ending the entertainment tycoon's mirthful space odyssey.
    (AP, 10/11/09)

2009        Dec 1, In Kazakhstan astronauts from Canada and Belgium and a Russian cosmonaut landed safely, wrapping up a six-month stint on the International Space Station.
    (AP, 12/1/09)

2009        Dec 12, In Thailand 4 Kazakhs and a Belarusian were detained and their New Zealand registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea. The Ilyushin 76 transport from Kazakhstan was allegedly traveling from North Korea to Sri Lanka when it asked to land in Bangkok to refuel. According to a flight plan seen by arms trafficking researchers, the aircraft was chartered by Hong Kong-based Union Top Management Ltd. to fly oil industry spare parts from Pyongyang to Tehran, Iran, with several other stops, including Bangkok, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. A New Zealand shell company, SP Trading Ltd., had leased the airplane.
    (AP, 12/12/09)(AP, 12/23/09)(AP, 1/22/10)

2009        Dec 14, China’s Pres. Hu Jintao and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan gathered at the Saman-Depe gas field in Turkmenistan and inaugurated a 1,139-mile gas pipeline running through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China’s Xinjiang province.
    (Econ, 1/30/10, p.51)(www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/pipe-d21.shtml)

2009        Dec 20, A Russian Soyuz TMA-17 rocket blasted off from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying an American, a Russian and a Japanese astronaut to the int’l. space station.
    (SFC, 12/21/09, p.A2)

2009        Dec 22, In Kazakhstan journalist Gennady Pavlyuk (51) of Kyrgyzstan died six days after being thrown from a 6th story window in central Almaty.
    (Econ, 1/9/10, p.45)

2009        Dilip Hiro authored “Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Iran.”
    (Econ, 9/26/09, p.98)
2009        Daniel Metcalfe authored “Out of Steppe: The Lost Peoples of Central Asia.” He describes such people as the Karakalpak in Uzbekistan, the Yaghnobi in people of Tajikistan, the Jews of Bukhara and the Germans of Kazakhstan.
    (Econ, 5/16/09, p.91)
2009        A new oil pipeline allowed Kazakhstan to export oil to China.
    (Econ, 7/27/19, p.18)

2010        Jan 27, NATO's top officer said that Russia had agreed to boost cooperation with the alliance in Afghanistan, including opening more transit routes for supplies to international troops and helping service Soviet-built helicopters used by the security forces. NATO said it had finalized an agreement with Kazakhstan to open the last leg on an overland route to Afghanistan from Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, offering an alternative to the one through Pakistan.
    (AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)

2010        Feb 11, Thai prosecutors said they have dropped charges against the five-man crew of an aircraft accused of smuggling weapons from North Korea, saying the men, arrested on Dec 12, might be guilty but would be deported to preserve good relations with their home countries. The decision was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.
    (AP, 2/11/10)

2010        Mar 11, In Kazakhstan a dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured, pouring water into several nearby villages and affecting 3,000 residents. A 2nd dam was washed away in the nearby Karatalsky district. Emergency officials said heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region of Kazakhstan neighboring China, flooding villages and claiming at least 35 lives.
    (AP, 3/12/10)(AFP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)

2010        Mar 18, Astronauts from the US and Russia landed safely in northern Kazakhstan's chilly steppes after spending almost six months on the International Space Station.
    (AP, 3/18/10)

2010        Apr 2, In southern Kazakhstan a Russian rocket carrying 2 Russian and one American astronauts blasted off, kicking off a tightly packed schedule at the International Space Station in the coming days.
    (AP, 4/2/10)

2010        Apr 8, The European Space Agency launched CryoSat 2 on a Russian rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite was designed to measure the effects of climate change on the Earth’s polar ice caps.
    (SFC, 4/9/10, p.A2)

2010        Apr 15, Deposed Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev' left the country for neighboring Kazakhstan, just hours after gunfire erupted at a rally where he was speaking to supporters.
    (AP, 4/15/10)

2010        Apr 24, A Russian Proton rocket carrying a US AMC 49 telecommunications satellite was launched into orbit from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
    (AFP, 4/25/10)

2010        May 12, Kazakh lawmakers approved amendments to the constitution that will give President Nursultan Nazarbayev lifetime immunity from prosecution for acts committed during his rule and the right to approve important national and foreign policies after he retires.
    (AP, 5/13/10)

2010        Jun 16, In Kazakhstan 2 US and a Russian crewmate blasted off for the int’l. space station in a Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. A woman in the US crew doubled the ISS female crew to an all time high.
    (SFC, 6/16/10, p.A2)(SFC, 6/18/10, p.A10)

2010        Jul 5, Belarus signed a customs union with Russia and Kazakhstan.
    (Econ, 7/24/10, p.53)

2010        Jul 13, Kazakhstan’s cabinet approved a crude-oil export tax of $20 per metric ton. Chevron, based in San Ramon, Ca., owns 50% of Tengiz Chevroil, which operates the biggest field in Kazakhstan.
    (SFC, 7/14/10, p.D2)

2010        Sep 14, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Kazakhstan's failure to improve media freedom has damaged its international standing and the situation is getting worse, not better.
    (AP, 9/14/10)

2010        Sep 21, The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said 40 young Europeans are murdered every day, with Russia, Albania and Kazakhstan having the highest homicide rates for people aged 10-29.
    (AP, 9/21/10)

2010        Sep 25, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan returning 3 astronauts from a 6-month mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SSFC, 9/26/10, p.A5)

2010        Sep, Kazakhstan completed a restructure of its banking system, brought on its banking crisis in Feb, 2009. The majority of creditors of BTA Bank shared the pain.
    (Econ, 11/27/10, p.82)

2010        Oct 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian Soyuz TMA-01M rocket blasted off for the Int’l. Space Station carrying one American and 2 Russian astronauts.
    (SFC, 10/8/10, p.A2)

2010        Nov 30, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touched down in Astana, Kazakhstan, to attend the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit on a trip through Central Asia that will also see her visit Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as Bahrain.
    (AFP, 11/30/10)

2010        Dec 1, Kazakhstan began hosting a 2-day summit of the OSCE, the first in 11 years, seeking to revamp the organisation's ability to react to security crises.
    (AFP, 12/1/10)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.54)
2010        Dec 1, Belarus announced that it will give up its stockpile of material used to make nuclear weapons by 2012. The arrangement was announced on the sidelines of an international security meeting in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Belarussian counterpart, Sergei Martynov.
    (AP, 12/1/10)

2010        Dec 16, Astronauts from the US, Russia and Italy blasted off in a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan on a mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 12/16/10, p.A2)

2010        Dec 23, In Kazakhstan a forum of 900 people in Ust-Kamenogorsk put forward an initiative to extend via referendum the president’s term in office until 2020 and to cancel the next presidential election, due in 2012.
    (Econ, 1/8/11, p.40)

2011        Feb 3, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law a measure allowing early presidential elections. The measure allows for the vote to be held on two months' notice. The constitutional court rejected a petition drive for a referendum on keeping him in power for at least another decade.
    (AP, 2/3/11)

2011        Feb 4, Kazakhstan Pres. Nazarbayev called early presidential elections for April 3, an accelerated timetable that gives the country's weak opposition forces little time to prepare.
    (AP, 2/4/11)

2011        Mar 15, In Kazakhstan several hundred people rallied near the presidential palace to urge the government to assist homeowners battling repossessions, and a few dozen were detained by police.
    (AP, 3/15/11)

2011        Mar 16, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely in central Kazakhstan after a five-month stint on the International Space Station. They left behind Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, Italy's Paolo Nespoli and NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, who are due to return to earth in about three months.
    (AP, 3/16/11)

2011        Apr 3, Kazakhstan held elections. A heavy turnout looked set to overwhelmingly reaffirm the domination President Nursultan Nazarbayev (70). Provisional figures the next day showed Nazarbayev with 95% of the vote. Opposition politicians had called for a boycott and described the election as a sham.
    (AP, 4/3/11)(SFC, 4/4/11, p.A2)

2011        May 3, Kazakhstan ratified an agreement with the United States to allow the air transit of supplies and personnel destined for operations in Afghanistan.
    (AP, 5/3/11)

2011        Jun 7, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft took off from Kazakhstan, bound for the International Space Station. In the three-man crew were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, American astronaut Michael Fossum, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency. The trio will spend six months on the space station.
            (AP, 6/7/11)(Reuters, 6/7/11)

2011        Jul 11, Kazakhstan police said nine gunmen have been killed in a special operation to detain an armed group suspected of being behind the killing of three Interior Ministry officers in June. One policeman died during last week's raid in the village of Kenkiyak. 16 prisoners died when they blew themselves up after an abortive attempt to break out a jail in the southern town of Balkhash. One prison guard was killed in the attempted breakout.
    (AP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/12/11)

2011        Sep 3, In Tajikistan leaders from eight former Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) gathered to celebrate enduring cooperation over the two decades since their nations collectively gained independence, but mutual acrimony and recriminations cast a shadow over the event.
    (AP, 9/3/11)

2011        Sep 16, A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts, an American and two Russians, landed in Kazakhstan following a stay at the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 9/17/11, p.A2)

2011        Oct 13, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev approved a bill tightening registration rules for religious groups that has been described by critics as a blow to freedom of belief in the ex-Soviet nation.
    (AP, 10/13/11)

2011        Oct 30, An unmanned Russian cargo ship headed for the Int’l. Space Station after it launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
    (SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)

2011        Oct, Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev hired a team under British former prime minister Tony Blair to counsel him on reform and a transition to democracy.
    (Econ, 12/20/14, p.91)

2011        Nov 12, In Kazakhstan a radical Islamist, identified only as Kariyev, killed 7 people, including 5 law enforcement officers, in a rampage the southern city of Taraz. The suspect blew himself up as officers moved in to arrest him.
    (AP, 11/12/11)

2011        Nov 14, Two Russians and an American blasted off from Kazakhstan to the ISS orbiting laboratory on a Soyuz-FG rocket, Russia's first manned mission since the failed launch of the unmanned Progress supply ship in August temporarily grounded its Soyuz rockets.
    (AFP, 11/14/11)

2011        Nov 18, In Kazakhstan US Embassy spokesman Jon Larsen said the Peace Corps will be leaving the country. Volunteers posted messages online linking the move to rapes and other attacks. The Peace Corps has sent around 1,000 volunteers to serve in the country since it started operations there in 1993.
    (AP, 11/18/11)

2011        Nov 21, A Russian Soyuz capsule with 3 astronauts returned from the Int’l. Space Station landed in Kazakhstan after spending 165 days in space.
    (SFC, 11/22/11, p.A2)

2011        Dec 1, In Kazakhstan a new 5.2 mile subway line officially opened in Almaty. Work had begun in 1988 under Soviet rule.
    (SFC, 12/3/11, p.A2)

2011        Dec 16, In Kazakhstan at least 15 people died in a clash with police in the city of Zhanaozen. The city had been the site of a sit-in by oil workers seeking higher wages. Many of those workers were fired over the summer. Opposition leader Vladimir Kozlov was later jailed on trumped-up charges of fomenting the turmoil.
    (AP, 12/18/11)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.57)(Econ, 1/30/16, p.35)

2011        Dec 17, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev imposed a three-week state of emergency in the oil town of Zhanaozen, where at least 15 people were killed a day earlier in a clash between police and demonstrators. In the southwest police opened fire on rioters in the town of Shetpe, leaving one person dead and 11 wounded. Two days of rioting left 16 people dead.
    (AP, 12/17/11)(AP, 12/18/11)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.26)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.57)

2011        Dec 26, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his billionaire son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, from his post as head of the sovereign wealth fund.
    (Econ, 12/31/11, p.26)

2012        Jan 15, Kazakhstan held elections that were expected to slightly broaden democratic representation in parliament's rubber-stamp lower house. Opposition parties that were most likely to pose a robust challenge to the ruling Nur Otan party have been either disqualified from competing or rendered largely powerless. President Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party won 80.7 percent of the vote, with two other parties achieving slightly more than 7 percent each, thereby clearing the threshold to enter parliament.
    (AP, 1/15/12)(AP, 1/16/12)

2012        Jan 16, International election monitors said that Kazakhstan's parliamentary election failed to meet the fundamental principles of a democratic vote.
    (AP, 1/16/12)

2012        Jan 28, In Kazakhstan some 300 opposition activists staged a rare rally in Almaty, the commercial capital, to protest recent elections and the violent suppression of a group of oil workers. Hours later, speakers at the rally were handed two-week jail sentences for holding the unsanctioned gathering.
    (AP, 1/28/12)

2012        Feb 2, Kyrgyzstan's government said it will reprimand officials responsible for allowing contaminated radioactive coal to be imported into the country from neighboring Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 2/2/12)

2012        Feb 24, A British legal filing indicated that fugitive oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov (48), accused of embezzling at least $5.0 billion (3.2 billion pounds) from his former Kazakh bank BTA, is believed to have fled Britain on a coach bound for France to escape a jail sentence for contempt of court.
    (Reuters, 2/24/12)

2012        Apr 20, In western Kazakhstan journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov was stabbed and shot in an overnight attack that his colleagues say may have been motivated by his critical reporting about the Central Asian nation's authoritarian government.
    (AP, 4/20/12)

2012        Apr 27, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz space capsule landed with 2 Russians and an American ending their 163-day stay at the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 4/28/12, p.A2)

2012        May 15, In southern Kazakhstan a three-man crew, NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, blasted off from the Baikonur space center on board a Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station. Russian charges for use of the Soyuz were $450 million per year.
    (AP, 5/15/12)(Econ, 5/5/12, p.77)

2012        Jun 4, NATO concluded agreements with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to allow it to evacuate military equipment from Afghanistan and completely bypass Pakistan.
    (SFC, 6/5/12, p.A2)

2012        Jun 5, Kazakhstan's interior minister said a border guard who went missing after the death of 14 fellow soldiers at a remote frontier outpost last week has been detained and is being questioned.
    (AP, 6/5/12)

2012        Jul 1, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan bringing an end to a 193-day mission for American astronaut Donald Petit, Dutchman Andre Kuipers and Russian Oleg Kononenko.
    (SFC, 7/2/12, p.A2)

2012        Jul 15, A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan with an international crew of three toward the International Space Station in a mission testing the reliability of Russia's crisis-prone space program. On board were NASA's Sunita Williams, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Yury Malenchenko of Russia.
    (AFP, 7/15/12)

2012        Aug 6, Russia launched an unmanned Proton-M rocked carrying Russian and Indonesian communications satellites. A secondary booster module failed shortly after launch from Kazakhstan.
    (SFC, 8/8/12, p.A2)

2012        Sep 24, Kazakhstan’s PM Karim Masimov resigned after leading the oil-rich Central Asian nation for more than five years and shepherding its economy through the global financial crises.
    (AP, 9/24/12).

2012        Sep, In Kazakhstan Serik Akhmetov was named as prime minister.
    (Reuters, 4/2/14)

2012        Oct 23, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched in Kazakhstan carrying a 3-man crew, including an American and 2 Russians, to the Intl. Space Station.
    (SFC, 10/24/12, p.A2)

2012        Nov 22, Kazakhstan's police raided the offices of a news website and took steps to halt the publication of a newspaper critical of the government, in what a media watchdog group says was an "unprecedented offensive" against government critics.
    (AP, 11/22/12)

2012        Nov, Kazakhstan was for the first time elected to sit on the UN Human Rights Council.
    (Econ, 12/22/12, p.57)

2012        Dec 1, Kazakhstan observed a new holiday lauding President Nazarbayev (72), part of a growing cult of personality around the leader of the former Soviet republic. The First President's Day marked the anniversary of Nazarbayev's first election in 1991.
    (AP, 12/1/12)

2012        Dec 11, A Kazakhstan court convicted border guard Vladislav Chelakh (19) of killing 14 of his comrades along with a park ranger and sentenced to life in prison.
    (AP, 12/12/12)

2012        Dec 14, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev (72) announced a raft of reforms for this energy-rich, authoritarian state, ranging from having more direct local and regional elections to imposing the use of the Latin alphabet for the Kazakh language.
    (AP, 12/14/12)

2012        Dec 19, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz spacecraft carrying an American, a Russian and a Canadian lifted off for the Int’l. Space Station for a 2-day journey and 4-month stay.
    (SFC, 12/20/12, p.A2)

2012        Dec 25, Kazakhstan's acting border service chief Col. Turganbek Stambekov was among 27 people killed in a military plane crash, a Russian-made An-72, near the southern city of Shymkent. He was appointed in June to deal with the aftermath of a mass killing involving a conscript.
    (AP, 12/25/12)

2013        Jan 29, In Kazakhstan a SCAT passenger jet carrying at least 20 people crashed in heavy fog near Almaty, killing all on board.
    (AP, 1/29/13)

2013        Feb 27, Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top official at diplomatic talks, said negotiations in Kazakhstan with world powers over how to curb Iran's nuclear program have reached a "turning point" for the better at the close of two days of discussions aimed at preventing Tehran from building an atomic arsenal.
    (AP, 2/27/13)

2013        Mar 16, A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American and 2 Russians landed in Kazakhstan. The men had spent 144 days on the Int’l. Space Station. 3 astronauts remained on the ISS.
    (SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A4)

2013        Mar 19, An English judge said oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has been in hiding since he was sentenced to jail for contempt of court last year, organised a complex fraud to embezzle billions of dollars from Kazakh bank BTA.
    (Reuters, 3/19/13)

2013        Mar 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts docked with the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after traveling just 6 hours from launch in Kazakhstan.
    (SFC, 3/30/13, p.A3)

2013        Apr 5, In Kazakhstan talks began seeking to find common ground between Iran and a group of six nations over concerns that Tehran might misuse its nuclear program to make weapons.
    (AP, 4/5/13)

2013        Apr 6, In Kazakhstan Iran and six world powers failed to reach agreement on an approach to reducing fears that Tehran might use its nuclear technology to make weapons. The EU's foreign policy chief declared that the two sides "remain far apart on substance."
    (AP, 4/6/13)

2013        Jul 2, A Russian Proton rocket carrying navigation satellites crashed a few seconds after takeoff from the Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. This was the 4th Proton failure at Baikonur in 14 years.
    (SFC, 7/3/13, p.A2)(Econ, 11/8/14, p.45)

2013        Jul 13, Kazakhstan said the wife of fugitive former minister and oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov could not leave the country because she was under investigation. Ablyazov said his wife and daughter were in danger.
    (Reuters, 7/13/13)

2013        Jul 31, Dissident Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov (50), accused at home of embezzling more than $5 billion, was arrested near the French Riviera resort of Cannes. The next day he was told by a French judge that he faced extradition, but his family vowed to fight an expulsion it said was politically motivated.
    (Reuters, 8/1/13)

2013        Aug 14, Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court sentenced six men 5-10 years for  conspiring to assassinate government officials in Astana. They were arrested last January. The court said one had trained his under-age Muslim wife as a suicide bomber to detonate a charge.
    (Reuters, 8/14/13)

2013        Sep 11, A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts touched down in Kazakhstan after undocking from the International Space Station following 166 days in space.
    (AP, 9/11/13)

2013        Sep, China unveiled its “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR, aka BRI) initiative, a development strategy that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries. Chinese leader Xi Jinping unveiled the BRI in September and October 2013 during visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Belt_One_Road_Initiative)(Econ, 8/5/17, p.49)

2013        Nov 11, A Russian space capsule carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station in a flawless landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 11/11/13)

2013        Dec 20, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, backed by the legislature, decided to send officers to aid UN peacekeeping missions next year for the first time since independence in 1991.
    (Reuters, 12/20/13)

2013        Kazakhstan began producing oil from the Kashagan oilfield in the northern Caspian Sea. The project was eight years behind schedule and at $43 billion was $30 billion over budget. Production lasted only a few weeks due to leaks of poisonous gas. A restart was hoped for in 2016.
    (Econ, 10/11/14, p.73)

2014        Jan 9, A French court ruled that dissident Kazakh Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank BTA, should be extradited from France to Ukraine or Russia.
    (Reuters, 1/9/14)

2014        Feb 11, The value of Kazakhstan currency, the tenge, fell by 19%.
    (Econ, 2/22/14, p.35)

2014        Feb 16, In Almaty, Kazakhstan, protesters waived their knickers in a protest  ostensibly over a rule regulating synthetic underwear. The “pantie protesters” were rounded up and led away. The real anger was over the recent devaluation of the country’s currency.
    (Econ, 2/22/14, p.35)

2014        Mar 11, Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut landed back on Earth in Kazakhstan after a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of over half a year.
    (AFP, 3/11/14)

2014        Mar 26, A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and NASA’s Steve Swanson blasted off from Kazakhstan. A software glitch delayed their docking with the International Space Station until March 27.
    (SFC, 3/27/14, p.A2)(AP, 3/28/14)

2014        Apr 2, Kazakhstan PM Serik Akhmetov unexpectedly announced his resignation and was swiftly replaced by Karim Masimov (49), his influential predecessor. Masimov had stepped down as prime minister in 2012 after occupying the position for five years, during which he shepherded the country's economy through the global financial crisis.
    (AP, 4/2/14)

2014        Apr 9, A French court blocked the extradition of exiled Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, an opposition figure wanted on embezzlement charges. Russia alleges Ablyazov embezzled $5 billion (3.6 billion euros). Ukraine accuses him of pilfering another $400 million.
    (AFP, 4/9/14)

2014        May 14, A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts landed in Kazakhstan. Russian Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan had spent 188 days in the ISS.
    (SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)

2014        May 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal creating an economic union with ex-Soviet states Belarus and Kazakhstan.
    (AFP, 5/29/14)

2014        Jun 5, Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh president's former son-in-law, was detained in Austria while under investigation for alleged crimes including murder and running a crime network in Kazakhstan.
    (Reuters, 6/6/14)

2014        Sep 11, The Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) opened its 14th annual summit. The 2-day meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, included the groups six member countries: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO agreed to adopt procedures for expansion with India and Pakistan likely to join next year.
    (Econ, 9/20/14, p.39)

2014        Sep 25, A US-Russian space crew blasted off from Kazakhstan for a 6-month stint at the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 9/26/14, p.A2)

2014        Oct 30, Kazakhstan’s border chief was charged with organized crime and soliciting bribes.
    (Econ, 11/15/14, p.42)

2014        Nov 10, A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts from the International Space Station landed safely on the frozen Kazakhstan steppe.
    (AP, 11/10/14)

2014        Nov 24, A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station, including Italy's first female astronaut.
    (Reuters, 11/24/14)

2014        Dec 3, In the Turkmen frontier village of Ak-Yayla the presidents of Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan attended the official opening of a railway line linking landlocked Central Asia with the Persian Gulf.
    (AP, 12/3/14)

2014        Dec 23, Russia and four other ex-Soviet nations completed the creation of a new economic alliance intended to bolster their integration. The Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, comes to existence on Jan 1. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko cracked the ceremonial veneer of the meeting by launching a harsh attack on Moscow for damaging Belarus' economic interests with moves to restrict its exports to Russia.
    (AP, 12/23/14)

2014        Dec 30, The US Pentagon said three Yemenis and two Tunisians held for more than a decade at Guantanamo have been flown to Kazakhstan for resettlement.
    (Reuters, 12/30/14)

2015        Jan 2, The Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc of former Soviet states, expanded to four nations when Armenia formally joined, a day after the union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan began.
    (AP, 1/2/15)

2015        Jan 15, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko agreed that the delayed talks on the Ukraine conflict with leaders of Russia, France and Germany will take place at the end of the month in Astana.
    (AFP, 1/15/15)

2015        Jan 20, In southern Kazakhstan a light passenger plane belonging to Kazakh copper miner Kazakhmys crashed, killing 6 of 7 people on board.
    (Reuters, 1/20/15)

2015        Feb 20, Kazakhstan soccer federation Pres. Erlan Kozhagapanov said he wants to crack down on match-fixing and corruption in football as the country prepares to bid for the 2026 World Cup.
    (AP, 2/20/15)

2015        Feb 24, In Austria Rakhat Aliyev (b.1962), the Kazakh president's former son-in-law, was found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial on charges of murder.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhat_Aliyev)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.38)

2015        Mar 4, France's highest appeals court paved the way for the extradition to either Russia or Ukraine of jailed Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank BTA.
    (Reuters, 3/4/15)

2015        Mar 5, Energy-rich Kazakhstan suspended Russian fuel and gas imports to protect its domestic market from a surplus due to a weakened ruble which has sent ripples of economic uncertainty through Central Asia.
    (AP, 3/5/15)

2015        Mar 12, In Kazakhstan two Russians and an American landed after nearly six months aboard the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)

2015        Mar 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a single currency with the Kremlin's closest ex-Soviet allies at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
    (AFP, 3/20/15)

2015        Mar 28, NASA said a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board successfully docked with the International Space Station after blasting off from Kazakhstan. An American and two Russians floated into the International Space Station, beginning what is to be a year away from Earth for two of them.
    (AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/28/15)

2015        Apr 26, Kazakhstan's citizens turned out in force for a presidential poll. Strongman incumbent Nursultan Nazarbayev (74) won with 97.7% of the vote. Central Election Commission data showed turnout was 95.22%.
    (AFP, 4/26/15)(Reuters, 4/27/15)

2015        Apr 28, Russia’s unmanned Progress vessel, loaded with 3 tons of goods for the Int’l. space Station, began tumbling shortly after its launch from Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 4/29/15)

2015        Apr 28, Russia’s unmanned Progress M-27M, loaded with 3 tons of goods for the Int’l. space Station, began tumbling shortly after its launch from Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 4/29/15)(SFC, 4/29/15, p.A2)

2015        May 27, In Kazakhstan international experts investigated the sudden deaths of some 134,000 endangered saiga antelope, raising fears that a species that has been around since the Ice Age may be at risk of dying out. Around 40 percent of the nation's population of the endangered saiga antelope have died in the past two weeks. The deaths were later believed to have been caused by two naturally occurring bacteria.
    (Reuters, 5/27/15)(SSFC, 6/21/15, p.C14)

2015        Jun 11, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and Russia's Anton Shkaplerov returned to Earth after 199 days on the Int’l. Space station, nearly a month longer than planned.
    (AP, 6/11/15)

2015        Jul 3, Russia launched an unamnned cargo ship from Kazakhstan to the Int’l. Space Station. The Progress M-28 ship was set to dock on July 5.
    (SFC, 7/4/15, p.A4)

2015        Jul 10, An Austrian jury acquitted Alnur Mussayev, Kazakhstan's former spy chief, and presidential family guard Vadim Koshlyak of double murder in a trial whose main suspect, the president's former son-in-law, was found hanged in jail.
    (Reuters, 7/10/15)

2015        Aug 20, Kazakhstan currency plunged by over 20 percent against the dollar after the government decided to move to a free float to cope with big swings in global currencies and commodity prices. The policy change came a day after President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered a reduction in the deficit to prepare for a possible further crash in the price of oil, which he said could drop as low as $30 a barrel.
    (AP, 8/20/15)

2015        Aug 27, The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan to establish a low-enriched uranium bank in the Central Asian country, a move that supporters say could reduce concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation.
    (AP, 8/27/15)

2015        Sep 2, In Kazakhstan the first Dane in space accompanied by 26 custom-made figurines from Danish toymaker Lego blasted off in a Soyuz spacecraft as part of a three-man team on an unusually long two-day mission to the International Space Station.
    (AFP, 9/2/15)

2015        Sep 11, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev (75) signed off on daughter Dariga's appointment as deputy-prime minister, in a move that could be linked to the ex-Soviet republic's looming succession issue.
    (AFP, 9/11/15)

2015        Sep 12, A Russian space capsule landed safely in Kazakhstan, bringing home a three-person crew from the International Space Station, including a record-breaking Russian cosmonaut. Gennady Padalka completed his fifth mission for a world record of 879 total days in space.
    (AP, 9/12/15)

2015        Sep 17, In France PM Manuel Valls signed a decree authorizing the extradition to Russia of jailed Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov. Ablyazov was notified in October at the prison where he is being held outside Paris. The businessman accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank BTA planned to lodge an appeal.
    (Reuters, 10/12/15)

2015        Oct 1, Russia launched its Progress M-29M cargo spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to the Int’l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)

2015        Oct 10, In South Korea Iranian director Hadi Mohaghegh's "Immortal" and "Walnut Tree" from Kazakhstan's Yerlan Nurmukhambetov were named the winners of the New Currents award for first- and second-time filmmakers at the 20th Busan International Film Festival.
    (AFP, 10/10/15)

2015        Dec 11, In Kazakhstan former PM Serik Akhmetov (2012-2014) was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the first time a former official of such stature will serve jail time in the country. Akhmetov (57) was found guilty on four corruption-related charges including embezzlement and abuse of power, in a huge case involving more than 20 defendants.
    (AFP, 12/12/15)
2015        Dec 11, A three-person crew from the International Space Station landed safely in the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 12/11/15)

2015        Dec 15, In Kazakhstan Tim Peake (43), the first British astronaut to travel to the International Space Station, blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome with Russian space veteran Yury Malenchenko and Tim Kopra of NASA for a six-month mission.
    (AFP, 12/15/15)

2015        Dec 21, The unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft blasted off from Russia's space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a journey to the International Space Station.
    (AP, 12/21/15)

2015        Between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan the surface area of the Aral Sea was projected to be down to13,000 sq. km.
    (WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A18)

2016        Jan 27, A helicopter crashed in Kazakhstan, killing all 5 aboard, including an infant being taken to a hospital.
    (Reuters, 1/28/16)

2016        Feb 22, Kazakhstan's anti-corruption agency said it is investigating the head of the journalists' union Seitkazy Matayev over suspected theft and tax evasion, less than a month before a parliamentary election.
    (Reuters, 2/22/16)

2016        Mar 2, US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko landed in Kazakhstan after almost a year in space in a ground-breaking experiment foreshadowing a potential manned mission to Mars.
    (AFP, 3/2/16)

2016        Mar 14, In Kazakhstan a joint European-Russian mission aiming to search for traces of life on Mars blasted off for the start of a seven-month unmanned space journey to the Red Planet.
    (AFP, 3/14/16)

2016        Mar 19, A Soyuz space capsule carrying two Russians and an American docked with the International Space Station. Their rocket took off in windy conditions from Russia's space base in Kazakhstan at 2126 GMT March 18.
    (AP, 3/19/16)

2016        Mar 20, Kazakhstan citizens voted in a parliamentary election expected to provide a commanding majority for ageing autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling party. Preliminary results showed Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party winning 82 percent of the vote. International observers, who were allowed unfettered access, observed ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.
    (AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)

2016        Apr 27, In Kazakhstan hundreds of people staged street protests in the western city of Aktobe over land reform, a rare act of defiance that could pose a challenge to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Critics had staged their first protest in the city of Atyrau on April 24.
    (AP, 4/27/16)

2016        May 5, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said he would delay a planned land reform which triggered a wave of public protests across the Central Asian nation. The protests were sparked by fears that reforms will allow foreigners - especially Chinese companies - to take over farmland.
    (Reuters, 5/5/16)

2016        May 6, In Kazakhstan Kuandyk Bishimbayev, chief executive of a state financial holding company, was named economy minister following the resignation of his predecessor over public protests against a planned land reform.
    (Reuters, 5/6/16)

2016        May 20, In Kazakhstan attempts to hold demonstrations against a land-reform measure were blocked. About forty activists were arrested for trying to organize them.
    (AP, 5/21/16)

2016        Jun 5, In Kazakhstan an attack by gunmen on the north-western city of Aktobe left at least 25 people dead. This included 13 attackers, 4 civilians and 3 National Guard servicemen. Eight gunmen have been detained.
    (Reuters, 6/7/16)(AP, 6/10/16)(Econ, 7/2/16, p.32)

2016        Jun 10, In Kazakhstan 5 suspected militants were killed in gunbattles with police in Aktobe that followed a series of recent armed attacks that have challenged the stability of the energy-rich ex-Soviet nation.
    (AP, 6/10/16)

2016        Jun 12, Kazakh security forces detained three men suspected of being Islamist militants linked to deadly June 5 attacks in the city of Akrobe. At least 25 people including 18 attackers died during the assaults on a national guard base and firearms shops, and in the subsequent manhunt.
    (Reuters, 6/12/16)

2016        Jun 18, In Kazakhstan Tim Peake, the first British astronaut on the ISS, Russia's Yury Malenchenko and NASA's Tim Kopra parachuted down onto the Kazakh steppe in their Soyuz capsule at 0915 GMT after spending 186 days in orbit.
    (AFP, 6/18/16)

2016        Jul 5, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and its other partners said they will spend $36.8 billion to develop more oil in Kazakhstan in a venture called Tengizchevroil.
    (AP, 7/5/16)

2016        Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
    (AP, 7/7/16)

2016        Jul 18, In Kazakhstan 3 police officers and one civilian were killed in armed attacks on a police station and a security building in Almaty. Police said they have disarmed and arrested two attackers.
    (AFP, 7/18/16)

2016        Aug 4, A court in Kazakhstan ordered the release on parole of opposition activist Vladimir Kozlov, after spending nearly five years in jail accused of participating in a failed attempt to overthrow the government.
    (Reuters, 8/4/16)

2016        Aug 31, Kazakhstan said it had arrested 21 members of radical groups plotting terror attacks in public places.
    (AFP, 8/31/16)

2016        Oct 19, In Kazakhstan two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut soared into orbit in a Soyuz spacecraft at the start of a two-day journey to the International Space Station.
    (AFP, 10/19/16)

2016        Oct 30, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan, bringing astronauts Kate Rubins of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia back to Earth from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
    (AP, 10/30/16)

2016        Nov 7, Kazakh businessman Tokhtar Tuleshov, best known for running the Shymkentpivo brewery, was sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges including plotting a coup against veteran President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
    (Reuters, 11/7/16)

2016        Nov 23, Kazakhstan's parliament called for the capital city, Astana, to be renamed after President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a week ahead of a national holiday dedicated to the 76-year-old leader who has the power to accept or reject the proposal.
    (Reuters, 11/23/16)

2016        Nov 28, Kazakh courts sentenced nine Islamic State supporters and two leading political activists to prison terms in separate trials after their convictions over the two biggest shocks to veteran President Nursultan Nazarbayev's rule.
    (Reuters, 11/28/16)

2016        Dec 1, In Kazakhstan an unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted with a load of supplies to the International Space Station, but Russian space officials said they weren't getting data from it. The Progress MSD-04 cargo craft broke up over Siberia.
    (AP, 12/1/16)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)

2016        Dec 7, Kazakhstan's state security service said it has detained several people suspected of stealing oil and fuel from a refinery in Aktobe and being linked to radical Islamists.
    (Reuters, 12/7/16)

2016        Dec 9, In France Kazakh opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov was released from prison after France's highest administrative authority blocked his extradition to Russia, where he is accused of embezzling billions of dollars.
    (AFP, 12/10/16)

2016        Dec 13, Kazakhstan and Israel signed agreements on cooperation in scientific research, civil aviation, medicine and agriculture following talks between Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev visiting PM Benjamin Netanyahu. They also agreed to work more closely together in fighting terrorism.
    (AP, 12/14/16)

2017        Jan 10, Kazakhstan’s National Anticorruption Bureau said former economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev (36) has been arrested on suspicion of bribery. He was dismissed from his ministerial post by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in late 2016 after just a few months in office.
    (Reuters, 1/10/17)

2017        Jan 11, Kazakhstan's veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev (76) gave the green light for constitutional reforms that could dilute the sweeping powers he has amassed as president and force his eventual successor to share power with other institutions.
    (Reuters, 1/11/17)

2017        Jan 23, In Kazakhstan indirect 2-day talks began in Astana between the Syrian government and rebels. The talks were hosted by Russia, Turkey and Iran.
    (Reuters, 1/23/17)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.39)

2017        Jan 24, In Kazakhstan Russia, Turkey and Iran backed a shaky truce between Syria's warring parties and agreed to monitor its compliance. On the ground rebels faced continued fighting on two fronts, which could undermine the deal.
    (Reuters, 1/24/17)

2017        Jan 25, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said he will delegate some of his sweeping powers to the Central Asian nation's parliament and cabinet, a move that could facilitate an eventual political transition.
    (Reuters, 1/25/17)

2017        Feb 16, In Kazakhstan Syrian government officials sat face-to-face with rebels for the second time in three weeks, as diplomats stepped up efforts to lay the groundwork for UN-brokered peace talks next week.
    (AP, 2/16/17)

2017        Feb 17, In Kazakhstan seven army soldiers died in an avalanche in the ex-Soviet republic's southern mountains. Rescuers saved 16 other soldiers who had been trapped by the avalanche.
    (AP, 2/17/17)

2017        Feb 22, Russia successfully launched a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) from Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 2/22/17)

2017        Feb 25, Iran announced plans to buy 950 tons of uranium ore from Kazakhstan over three years and said it expects to get Russian help in producing nuclear fuel.
    (Reuters, 2/25/17)

2017        Apr 10, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia's Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down after spending 173 days in space.
    (AP, 4/9/17)

2017        May 3, The Syrian armed opposition said it has suspended its participation in the 4th round of peace talks being held in Astana, Kazakhstan, and demanded an end to government bombing of areas under its control. Kazakhstan said it expects the Syrian armed opposition to return to the table on May 4.
    (Reuters, 5/3/17)(AP, 5/3/17)

2017        May 4, Iran, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement calling for the setting up of four "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria at the cease-fire talks in Kazakhstan and said that President Bashar Assad's air force would halt flights over the designated areas in the country's north, center and south. Members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out of the conference room in Astana. The opposition said it could not accept creating safe zones in Syria because it threatens the country's territorial integrity and said it would also not recognize Iran as a guarantor of the peace plan.
    (AP, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 5/4/17)

2017        May 30, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said that the Tengizchevroil project has suspended operations at Tengiz oilfield after a toxic substance was released.
    (AP, 5/30/17)   

2017        Jun 2, A Russian Soyuz capsule, carrying astronauts Russia's Oleg Novitsky and Thomas Pesquet of France, landed in Kazakhstan after a half-year aboard the International Space Station. NASA's Peggy Whitson's mission aboard the space station has been extended by three months.
    (AP, 6/2/17)

2017        Jun 10, Kazakhstan’s Expo 17 opened in Astana with the theme “Future Energy.” The Expo closed on Sept. 10.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2017)(Econ 7/1/17, p.32)

2017        Jun 14, A Kazakh man died and another was hospitalized after they were caught in a fire on the steppes triggered by falling debris from a Russian space launch. The fire broke out in the "planned fallout zone" for the Soyuz 2.1a rocket, which had blasted off from Baikonur at 0920 GMT (3:20 pm local time).
    (AFP, 6/15/17)

2017        Jul 5, In Syria Russian strategic bombers struck the Islamic State group with cruise missiles along the boundary between Hama and Homs provinces. A two-day round of Syria cease-fire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, ended without conclusive results.
    (AP, 7/5/17)

2017        Aug 29, Kazakhstan inaugurated a new internationally-controlled uranium fuel bank seen as potentially important in curbing nuclear proliferation and reducing regional security tensions.
    (AFP, 8/29/17)

2017        Sep 10, Kazakhstan’s World Expo closed.
    (Econ, 9/16/17, p.60)

2017        Oct 14, An unmanned Russian cargo ship was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to take supplies to the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
    (AP, 10/14/17)

2017        Oct 26, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his office to prepare for a switch to a Latin-based alphabet from a Cyrillic one, distancing itself, at least graphically, from Russia. Kazakh, a Turkic language, used to be written in Arabic script until the 1920s when the Soviet Union briefly introduced a Latin alphabet for it. This was later replaced by a Cyrillic one in 1940, based on the Russian alphabet.
    (Reuters, 10/26/17)

2017        Nov 7, The United States unveiled criminal charges against five people accused of involvement in a bribery scheme to help British defense giant Rolls-Royce win energy-related contracts in Kazakhstan.
    (AFP, 11/8/17)

2017        Dec 14, Three astronauts returned to Earth from the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after nearly six month in orbit. A Russian Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan with NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Russia’s Sergey Ryazansky and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency.
    (SFC, 12/15/17, p.A4)

2017        Dec 17, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, Japan and the US blasted off for a two-day trip to the Int’l. Space Station. Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle will join Russia's Alexander Misurkin and Joe Acaba and Mark Vandde Hei of NASA, who have been aboard since September.
    (AP, 12/17/17)

2017        Dec 25, The leaders of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan pledged to improve relations, after ties between the two former Soviet republics degenerated into a trade war under the previous Kyrgyz leadership.
    (Reuters, 12/25/17)

2017        Dec 26, Angola’s Russian-built AngoSat 1 satellite successfully entered orbit after launch from the Baikonur pad in Kazakhstan, but experts couldn't immediately establish contact. By Dec. 29 state-run Energia company engineers established communications with the craft and received data indicating that all its systems are operating properly.
    (AP, 12/29/17)

2017        China Ocean Shipping Company became a 49% owner of the “dry port” of Khorgos, a road-and-rail terminal on the Kazakh-Chinese border. This was seen as central to China’s Belt and Road initiative. Within months a city opened on the Chinese side of the border.
    (Econ, 7/27/19, p.18)
2017        Kazakhstan’s population numbered about 18 million.
    (Econ 7/1/17, p.32)

2018        Jan 18, A bus fire in northwestern Kazakhstan killed 52 Uzbek citizens on a route used by migrant workers heading to Russia. Only five people managed to escape the burning vehicle.
    (Reuters, 1/18/18)

2018        Feb 17, It was reported that authorities in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan have arrested a lawmaker from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan over contraband. Damirbek Asylbek uulu, an MP with the ruling coalition, was arrested along with three other Kyrgyz citizens.
    (AFP, 2/18/18)

2018        Feb 27, In Kazakhstan a ban on speaking Russian in cabinet meetings took effect - despite many ministers favoring that language over their native Kazakh.
    (Reuters, 2/27/18)

2018        Feb 28, In Kazakhstan NASA's Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russia's Alexander Misurkin returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission. Three astronauts remained behind.
    (AP, 2/28/18)

2018        Mar 1, Kazakhstan said it will allow cabinet and parliament members to speak Russian, softening the tone of an earlier statement by President Nursultan Nazarbayev who had ordered a switch to Kazakh.
    (Reuters, 3/1/18)

2018        Mar 21, In Kazakhstan two Americans and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from the Baikonur launch pad on their way to the Int'l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 3/22/18, p.A2)

2018        May 15, In Kazakhstan talks on Syria spearheaded by Russia in Astana failed to edge the seven-year conflict closer to a political settlement, and cast the future of diplomatic efforts to end the crisis into uncertainty.
    (AFP, 5/15/18)

2018        May 23, Kazakhstan's parliament passed a bill that would cement its veteran ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev's status as the country's top power broker even if he decides to retire as president.
    (AFP, 5/23/18)

2018        Jun 3, In Kazakhstan Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle of the United States and Norishige Kanai of Japan touched down in a Russian Soyuz space capsule on the Kazakh steppe after a 168-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
    (AFP, 6/3/18)

2018        Jun 6, In Kazakhstan a trio of astronauts from Russia, the United States and the European Space Agency blasted off for a mission on the International Space Station. A Russian spacecraft carried Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, Sergey Prokopyev of Russian space agency Roscosmos and the ESA's Alexander Gerst, from Germany, as it lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome.
    (AP, 6/6/18)

2018        Jun 23, Police in Kazakhstan detained dozens of people at an anti-government rally organized by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former tycoon and exiled opponent of Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev (77).
    (AP, 6/23/18)

2018        Jul 19, In Kazakhstan Denis Ten (25), a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist figure skater, was stabbed to death. Ten was knifed during a struggle with two men he had caught trying to steal the mirrors on his car in Almaty.
    (AP, 7/19/18)

2018        Jul 20, In Kazakhstan Nuraly Kiyasov "confessed his guilt in the presence of an attorney" while being questioned over the death a day earlier of figure skater Denis Ten. Police sought a second man, named as Arman Kudaibergenov, in the case.
    (AP, 7/20/18)

2018        Aug 1, A Kazakh court freed a Chinese citizen who gave testimony on a secretive network of Chinese "re-education camps" during her explosive immigration trial. Sayragul Sauytbay (41), an ethnic Kazakh Chinese national, had told the court how she had been forced to work in a camp system in China's Xinjiang region where hundreds of thousands of people are allegedly held.
    (AFP, 8/1/18)

2018        Aug 12, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed in principle how to divide up the potentially huge oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea.
    (Reuters, 8/12/18)

2018        Oct 4, In Kazakhstan the Russian Soyuz MS-08 space capsule carrying Russia's Oleg Artemyev and NASA's Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold landed safely after a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
    (AP, 10/4/18)

2018        Oct 11, The two-man US-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft en route to the International Space Station was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan when their rocket failed in mid-air. The rocket malfunctioned two minutes after liftoff, forcing its two-man crew of Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin to make an emergency landing. Investigators later said the rocket failure was caused by a sensor that was damaged during assembly at the Soviet-era cosmodrome at Baikonur.
    (Reuters, 10/11/18)(Reuters, 10/8/19)

2018        Nov 2, US immigration officials said Dias Kadyrbayev, a college friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been deported to his native Kazakhstan after he was convicted of concealing evidence in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
    (AP, 11/2/18)

2018        Nov 22, The Austria-based Int'l. Biathlon Union said nine biathletes from Kazakhstan have been suspended on suspicion of doping, including the country's entire women's Olympic team.
    (AP, 11/22/18)

2018        Dec 3, A Soyuz rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts took off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit, the first manned mission since a failed launch in October.
    (AFP, 12/3/18)

2018        Dec 20, Three astronauts returned to Earth after more than six months aboard the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz capsule with NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and German astronaut Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency landed on the snow-covered steppes in Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 12/20/18)

2019        Jan 5, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces handed over IS fighters and civilians from Kazakhstan to their country. This included five fighters, 11 women and 30 children.
    (AP, 1/7/19)

2019        Jan 9, The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said China is allowing more than 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to abandon their Chinese citizenship and leave the country in a sign that Beijing may be starting to feel a mounting backlash against its sweeping crackdown on Muslims in the far west region of Xinjiang.
    (AP, 1/9/19)

2019        Jan 17, Kazakhstan jailed Arman Kudaybergenov and Nural Kiyasov to 18 years in prison for the murder of Denis Ten, the country's first Olympic figure skating medalist. Ten (25) was stabbed in Almaty last July as he struggled with two men he had caught trying to steal the mirrors on his car. Female defendant Zhanar Tolybayeva was found guilty of theft and failing to report a crime, and sentenced to four years.
    (Reuters, 1/17/19)

2019        Feb 7, In Uzbekistan businessman Halemubieke Xiaheman (41), an ethnic Kazakh citizen of China's Xinjiang province, said in a video apparently recorded inside Tashkent airport building that he had been harassed by Chinese security officials to a point where his Russian and Kazakh clients were scared to work with him.
    (Reuters, 2/8/19)

2019        Feb 21, Kazakhstan's Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev fired the government over what he called its failure to raise living standards and diversify away from oil and gas in the Central Asian nation. An interim administration will be led by Askar Mamin, who previously held the post of first deputy prime minister.
    (AP, 2/21/19)

2019        Feb 27, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his government to tap the country's rainy-day fund for $3.6 billion in order to boost public sector salaries and social aid payouts and develop housing and infrastructure.
    (Reuters, 2/27/19)

2019        Mar 10, Kazakh police arrested Serikjan Bilash, an activist who has campaigned for victims of China's re-education drive in Xinjiang, sealing his informal group's office and taking its computers.
    (AFP, 3/10/19)

2019        Mar 19, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev (78), the only leader that the independent country has ever known, abruptly announced his resignation after three decades in power, raising uncertainty over the future course of the .
    (AP, 3/19/19)

2019        Mar 20, In Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (65), speaker of the upper chamber of parliament, was officially sworn in as interim president. Dariga Nazarbayeva (55), the eldest daughter of the outgoing leader, was appointed speaker of parliament, fueling speculation that she may succeed her father as president after next year's election. Nazarbayev remained chairman of the security council and leader of the ruling party. Tokayev immediately proposed changing the name of the capital from Astana to Nursultan (Sultan of Light). Parliament approved the change within hours.
    (AP, 3/20/19)(AFP, 3/20/19)

2019        Mar 23, In Kazakhstan the order to change Astana's name to Nur-Sultan was issued by interim President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who took power after Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned March 19.
    (AP, 3/23/19)

2019        Mar 27, A Kazakh military helicopter with 13 people on board crashed on during exercises. There were casualties, but that it was not yet clear how many.
    (Reuters, 3/27/19)

2019        Apr 3, Kazakhstan's interim president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made his first foreign visit since being appointed two weeks ago, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
    (AP, 4/3/19)

2019        Apr 4, The Russian Progress freighter blasted off from a launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and docked with the International Space Station after two orbits. It set a record time for a trip to the ISS, docking in three hours and 21 minutes.
    (AP, 4/4/19)

2019        Apr 9, Kazakhstan's interim president ordered an early presidential election to be held on June 9.
    (AP, 4/9/19)

2019        May 1, Hundreds of Kazakhs rallied in their two main cities, calling for a boycott of June presidential elections that they dismissed as a cover for an orchestrated handover of power. Police rushed to detain several dozen people.
    (Reuters, 5/1/19)(AP, 5/1/19)

2019        Jun 9, Police in Kazakhstan arrested hundreds of opposition protesters at polls to elect the country's first new president in 30 years following the departure of historic leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. Hand-picked successor Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took 70.8 percent of the presidential vote. The elections saw hundreds of arrests after the biggest protests in Kazakhstan in at least three years, as demonstrators urged a boycott of what they said was a fixed election.
    (AFP, 6/9/19)(AFP, 6/10/19)

2019        Jun 12, Kazakhstan's new Pres. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev promised during his inauguration to continue the course set by his predecessor, who led the Central Asian country since it gained independence in 1991.
    (AP, 6/12/19)

2019        Jun 24, In Kazakhstan a fire engulfed a sprawling ammunition depot near the town of Arys causing powerful explosions that injured at least 46 people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands.
    (AP, 6/24/19)

2019        Jun 25, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Anne McClain, veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and Canadian Space Agency record-holder David Saint-Jacques emerged from the space craft to applause from support crews, after touching down near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan.
    (AFP, 6/25/19)

2019        Jun 29, A brawl between Kazakh workers and their Arab colleagues in one of the country's largest oil fields left 30 people injured. The brawl was reportedly triggered after a Lebanese contractor posted a photo on WhatsApp featuring a Kazakh female colleague that many in the former Soviet nation saw as insulting. The injured engineers and workers included Lebanese, Jordanians and Palestinians.
    (AP, 6/30/19)

2019        Aug 16, Kazakh rights activist Serkzhan Bilash, who campaigned against the detention of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in special camps in China, pleaded guilty to a hate speech charge in exchange for securing his freedom.
    (Reuters, 8/17/19)

2019        Sep 21, Kazakhstan police detained dozens in in Nur-Sultan and Almaty, the country's two largest cities, as they took part in the latest protest against China's influence in the Central Asian republic. The protests were organized by supporters of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive banker living in France who has been the fiercest critic of Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
    (Reuters, 9/21/19)

2019        Sep 25, In Kazakhstan a Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off carrying an American, a Russian and the first space traveler from the United Arab Emirates to the Int'l. Space Station.
    (SFC, 9/26/19, p.A2)

2019        Oct 3, In Kazakhstan American Nick Hague, Russian Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa al-Mansoori, the first person from the United Arab Emirates to fly into space, landed safely after a six-hour flight from the International Space Station following an 8-day mission.
    (AP, 10/3/19)

2019        Dec 27, In Kazakhstan a jetliner with 98 people aboard struggled to get airborne and crashed shortly after departing from Almaty, killing at least 12 people.
    (AP, 12/27/19)

2020        Feb 6, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who has spent nearly 11 months in orbit on the longest spaceflight by a woman, landed safely in Kazakhstan along with along with station Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos' Alexander Skvortsov.
    (AP, 2/6/20)

2020        Feb 7, In southern Kazakhstan ethnic clashes between ethnic Kazakhs and Dungans, a minority group with Chinese roots, left eight people dead. The total number of casualties soon rose to 10. Dozens of people were detained as police established their roles in the incident.
    (AP, 2/9/20)

2020        Feb 21, In Kazakhstan Democratic Party activist and filmmaker Zhanbolat Mamay was one of dozens of activists who were detained ahead of demonstrations set for the next day. Mamay was arrested and sentenced to three days' detention for calling for the unsanctioned rally.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ybufxdk7)(Econ., 2/29/20, p.29)

2020        Feb 22, Kazakh police detained dozens of opposition supporters who staged public protests against the government. Around 200 people were detained as two opposition groups called for anti-government demonstrations in the oil-rich country.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ybufxdk7)(Reuters, 2/22/20)

2020        Feb 25, In Kazakhstan activist Dulat Agadil died in a jail cell, a day after police took him in on charges of contempt of court and insulting a judge. Authorities, including Pres. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said his death was caused by acute cardiovascular failure.
    (AP, 3/1/20)

2020        Mar 1, Kazakhstan police detained dozens of opposition supporters who took to the streets after the death of an anti-government activist in a detention center.
    (Reuters, 3/1/20)

2020        Mar 5, In Vienna OPEC members agreed to cut oil output by an extra 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter of 2020 to support prices that have been hit by the coronavirus outbreak, but made its action conditional on Russia and others joining in. Russia and Kazakhstan, both members of the broader and informal group known as OPEC+, said they had not yet agreed to a deeper cut.
    (Reuters, 3/5/20)

2020        Mar 13, Kazakhstan confirmed first coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 3/13/20)

2020        Mar 29, Kazakhstan locked down its fifth major city as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The country has confirmed 265 coronavirus cases and has already locked down its capital, Nur-Sultan, the biggest city, Almaty, as well as Shymkent, a large city in the south, and Aktau, a Caspian Sea port.
    (Reuters, 3/29/20)

2020        Mar 30, Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of 19 million, has confirmed 302 cases of the disease and has closed its borders, locked down most of its major cities and shut down most businesses in the two biggest population centers for a week.
    (Reuters, 3/30/20)

2020        Apr 9, Three astronauts flew to the International Space Station. NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 4/9/20)

2020        Apr 11, Kazakh authorities said ten people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at one of the worker camps located next to the giant Tengiz oilfield. The camp has been locked down and workers can enter the Tengiz field itself only after being quarantined for 14 days.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)

2020        Apr 17, In Kazakhstan a US-Russian crew landed safely following a stint on the International Space Station and was greeted with extra precautions due to the coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/17/20)

2020        Apr 18, Kazakhstan police said they have detained political activist and government critic Arman Shorayev in connection with the alleged spreading of "false information" during a state of emergency.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)

2020        May 1, Kazakh airlines made their first regular domestic flights in more than a month, with rows of passengers seated alongside empty middle seats, after the vast Central Asian nation eased coronavirus lockdown rules.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Authorities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan began evacuating tens of thousands of people from the Syr Darya river basin after the 3-year-old Sardoba dam on the Uzbek side burst, flooding large areas on both sides of the border. Six people were killed and over 100,000 displaced. Damages were estimated at $1 billion. Nine people were later arrested on charges that included embezzlement, fraud and negligence. Journalists looking into the collapse were harassed and fired.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.31)

2020        Jun 23, Kazakhstan has reported almost 29,000 COVID-19 cases, up from about 5,000 at the end of the lockdown. Almaty's the city's healthcare chief said the city may convert two sports arenas into COVID-19 hospitals as existing facilities for patients with suspected and confirmed cases are nearly full.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)

2020        Jun 25, Kazakhstan's health minister resigned, saying COVID-19 complications prevented him from leading efforts against the coronavirus outbreak. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan has nearly tripled this month to 32,000, with 136 deaths.
    (AP, 6/25/20)

2020        Jul 9, In Kazakhstan the Chinese embassy flagged a "significant increase" in cases in the Kazakh cities of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent since mid-June.
    (AP, 7/10/20)

2020        Jul 10, Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's emergencies program, said that an outbreak of pneumonia in Kazakhstan, reported to be highly lethal, was "certainly on our radar". He also said it was possible it might be COVID-19. Kazakhstan's healthcare ministry branded Chinese media reports as "fake news".
    (Reuters, 7/10/20)

2020        Oct 14, In Kazakhstan a trio of space travelers blasted off to the International Space Station, using for the first time a fast-track maneuver that allowed them to reach the orbiting outpost in just a little over three hours. NASA’s Kate Rubins along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility for a six-month stint on the station.
    (AP, 10/14/20)

2020        Oct 22, A trio of space travelers safely returned to Earth after a six-month mission on the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos’ Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.
    (AP, 10/22/20)

2020        Dec 4, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's office said Kazakhstan will start producing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the novel coronavirus this month and begin a mass vaccination campaign next year.
    (Reuters, 12/4/20)

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