After quashing protests, the government said that President Nazarbayev’s handpicked successor had won a lopsided vote. Observers cast doubt on the official count.
Author: ANDREW HIGGINS
belarus dispatch: Want to Relax? Try the Spa in a Salt Mine in Belarus
To some, the suggestion of a visit to the salt mines evokes grim memories of prison camps. But allergy sufferers swear by the health benefits.
The Saturday Profile: Putin’s Toughest Online Critic Brings His Name, and Wheelchair, Into the Light
Recently revealed as the creator of the online persona StalinGulag, Aleksandr Gorbunov has attracted a huge following for his scathing commentary.
Kyrgyzstan Dispatch: A Mennonite Town in Muslim Central Asia Holds On Against the Odds
A community of Mennonites in Kyrgyzstan is one of Christendom’s most remote and oddest outposts in the Muslim world, as ethnic Germans cling to their faith even as emigration shrinks their numbers.
Belarus Building Site Yields the Bones of 1,214 Holocaust Victims
Activists, who say the city knew about the mass grave for slaughtered Jews, ask why a permit was issued.
Ukraine’s Newly Elected President Is Jewish. So Is Its Prime Minister. Not All Jews There Are Pleased.
Anti-Semitism is not the scourge it once was in Ukraine, but some Jews fear becoming targets as their prominence grows.
Ukraine Election: Comedian Dismissed by President Is Favored to Get Last Laugh
Volodomyr Zelensky is blessed with the talents that seem to count in politics now: a flair for grabbing attention with little concern for the details.
In One-Man ‘Debate,’ Ukraine President Makes Pitch and Mocks Rival
A race between a chocolate tycoon and a comedian who appears to be the front-runner took another unusual turn.
In Asbest, Russia, Making Asbestos Great Again
The largest maker of the deadly fiber is making a comeback, and it says it has an ally in President Trump.
Russia Dispatch: Turgenev Dissed Russia but Is Still Lionized as Literary Star by Touchy Kremlin
The Russian government celebrates the writer Ivan Turgenev even though it scorns many of his negative views of his homeland and his embrace of Western, liberal values.