Almaty, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan’s parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to ban the promotion of what it calls “non-traditional sexual orientation” in public spaces and the media, a copycat of Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws.
Rights groups described the measure, which needs to be approved by the upper house, as discriminatory and said it would increase the vulnerability of LGBTQ people in the Central Asian Muslim-majority country, an ally of Russia.
The legislation would ban “information containing propaganda of pedophilia and/or non-traditional sexual orientation in public spaces, as well as in the media.”
Numerous rights groups urged MPs to reject the law, saying adopting it “would blatantly violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights commitments,” the International Partnership for Human Rights said in a statement.
Located between Russia and China, the vast former Soviet republic rich in natural resources, is trying to balance between its superpower neighbors and the West.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is currently on a state visit to Moscow, where he is expected to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev shake hands during their meeting at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Nov. 11, 2025.
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP/Getty
Earlier this year Tokayev slammed the rise of what he called LGBTQ values.
“For decades, so-called democratic moral values, including LGBT, were imposed on many countries,” he wrote on social media.
Echoing language used by Moscow, he added that various NGOs and foundations had used that as a facade for meddling in other countries’ internal affairs.
Russia adopted its own anti-LGBTQ law in 2013, initially banning what it called the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among children. It expanded the measure to adults after it invaded Ukraine in 2022 and has ramped up a campaign targeting LGBTQ groups and people.
Several other countries, including EU members Hungary and Bulgaria have also passed anti-LGBTQ “propaganda” laws that critics say are inspired by Russia’s.
Kazakhstan is set to join the Abraham Accords between Israel and Muslim majority countries, in a symbolic move aimed at boosting an initiative that was a hallmark of President Trump’s first term.
The action, announced Thursday, is largely symbolic as Kazakhstan has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992 and is much farther geographically from Israel than the other Abraham Accord nations — Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
Those four countries agreed to normalize relations with Israel as a result of joining the accords, something Kazakhstan did shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social that he’d hosted a “great call” between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. He wrote that Kazakhstan is the “first Country of my Second Term to join the Abraham Accords, the first of many.”
Trump called Kazakhstan’s joining “a major step forward in building bridges across the World” and said “more Nations are lining up to embrace Peace and Prosperity through my Abraham Accords.”
A signing ceremony would soon make it official, Mr. Trump said, and “there are many more Countries trying to join this club of STRENGTH.”
Later Thursday, Mr. Trump hosted a summit with the leaders of Kazakhstan and four other Central Asian nations, during which the president said more countries could join the Abraham Accords.
Asked by reporters what Kazakhstan’s entry into the accords will mean, given that Kazakhstan and Israel already had long-standing ties, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it an “enhanced relationship, beyond just diplomatic relations and having embassies in each other’s capitals.”
“You’re now creating a partnership that brings special and unique economic development on all sorts of issues that they can work on together,” Rubio said.
U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Kazakhstan’s participation in the Abraham Accords with Israel was important as it would enhance their bilateral trade and cooperation and signaled that Israel is becoming less isolated internationally, notably after massive criticism and protests over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
One official maintained that Mr. Trump’s nascent peace plan for Gaza had “completely changed the paradigm” and that many countries were now willing to “move toward the circle of peace” that it had created.
That official said specific areas of enhanced Israeli-Kazakh cooperation would include defense, cybersecurity, energy and food technology, although all of those have been subjects of previous bilateral agreements dating back to the mid-1990s.
During a working breakfast earlier Thursday, Rubio and Tokayev “discussed expanding opportunities for commercial trade and investment as well as increased cooperation with Kazakhstan in energy, technology, and infrastructure,” the department said in a statement.
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons after a gap of 33 years, minutes before beginning a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
How many nuclear weapons tests have there been, why were they stopped – and why would anyone start them again?
The United States opened the nuclear era in July 1945 with the test of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan to surrender in World War Two.
The Soviet Union shocked the West by detonating its first nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949.
In the five decades between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out, 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.
Britain carried out 45 tests, France 210 and China 45.
Since the CTBT, 10 nuclear tests have taken place. India conducted two in 1998, Pakistan also two in 1998, and North Korea conducted tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 (twice) and 2017, according to the United Nations.
The United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990. Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never done so.
Russia held nuclear drills last week and has tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and a nuclear-powered torpedo but has not tested a nuclear warhead.
WHY WAS NUCLEAR TESTING ENDED?
Concern mounted about the impact of the tests – above ground, underground and underwater – on human health and the environment.
The impact of the West’s testing in the Pacific and of Soviet testing in Kazakhstan and the Arctic was significant on both the environment and the people. Activists say millions of people in both the Pacific and Kazakhstan had their lands contaminated by nuclear testing – and have faced health issues for decades.
By limiting the Cold War bonanza of nuclear testing, advocates said, tensions between Moscow and Washington could be reduced.
The CTBT bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere. It was signed by Russia in 1996 and ratified in 2000. The United States signed the treaty in 1996 but has not ratified it.
In 2023, President Vladimir Putin formally revoked Russia’s ratification of the CTBT, bringing his country in line with the United States.
WHY WOULD YOU TEST AGAIN?
To gather information – or to send a signal.
Tests provide evidence of what any new nuclear weapon will do – and whether older weapons still work.
In 2020, the Washington Post reported that the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump had discussed whether or not to conduct a nuclear test.
Apart from providing technical data, such a test would be seen in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of U.S. strategic power.
Putin has repeatedly warned that if the United States resumed nuclear testing, Russia would too. Putin says a global nuclear arms race is already underway.
WHAT ARE BIG POWERS DOING WITH THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
The exact number of warheads each country has are secret but Russia has a total of about 5,459 warheads while the United States has about 5,177, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Those number include deployed, stockpiled and retired warheads.
The Washington D.C.-based Arms Control Association says the United States has a stockpile of 5,225 nuclear warheads and Russia has 5,580.
Global nuclear warhead stockpiles peaked in 1986 at over 70,000 warheads, most in the Soviet Union and the United States, but have since been reduced to about 12,000, most still in Russia and the United States.
China is the third largest nuclear power with 600 warheads, France has 290, the United Kingdom 225, India 180, Pakistan 170, Israel 90 and North Korea 50, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Russia, the United States and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear arsenals.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Brothers Griffin McConnell, 21, and Sullivan McConnell, 18, were selected for Team USA alongside three other players from around the country. Both are national masters, making them among the highest-rated chess players with disabilities in the country.
“Chess is the only sport that I know of that there’s only one requirement,” Sullivan said. “You just have to be able to think.”
The tournament is only the second of its kind and is a necessary step toward chess becoming an Olympic sport. It will bring together competitors with a range of disabilities.
“We’re going to be playing against people who are possibly blind,” Sullivan said. “We’ll be playing against people who can’t move their hands, can’t move their feet, and that doesn’t stop them from playing.”
Andy Cross/DP
Griffin (left) and Sullivan (right) have been playing chess from a very young age. (Photo By Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Though the championship is being held half a world away, daily training happens in Golden.
“We played each other more than any other person,” Griffin said. “We are both very competitive. We’re always trying to figure out who’s the better brother.”
For Sullivan, this trip will be a first.
“It’s been Sullivan’s dream. He’s never been out of the United States. We had to get a passport, like, within two weeks,” their father Kevin McConnell said.
Kevin McConnell
Kevin McConnell (left) is the father of Griffin and Sullivan and the Executive Director of PALS Chess Academy.
Kevin, executive director of PALS Chess Academy, is proud to see his sons get the chance to compete on an international stage.
“I’m just really proud that they get a chance to represent their country, No. 1. And they’re a super strong team,” he said. “It would just be amazing for chess.”
Griffin and Sullivan will play on Boards Two and Four for Team USA. For Griffin, that means not just focusing on his own matches, but helping his brother prepare for opponents.
“We are brothers. Even though I’m lower rated than him, I can still help Sullivan with certain opponents,” Griffin said. “It’s a guessing game, but if I do it correctly, which I have done before, that has helped Sullivan win games.”
The brothers see the sport as a uniquely inclusive competition.
“It is the most accessible game in the world, no matter what you struggle with,” Sullivan said.
The trip isn’t just about games and rankings.
“Doing it with one of my other people, my brother, helping me and coming with me… It’s going to be a memory that I will always have,” Sullivan said.
Kevin said he hopes his sons’ role in the tournament helps advance chess in the global sports arena.
“It would be amazing if my kids were at the forefront of the group effort to make that happen,” he said.
The McConnell brothers depart for Kazakhstan later this month, bringing with them not only their boards and pieces, but also a chance to show that chess can thrive on the world stage — and perhaps, one day, at the Olympics.
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Kia Corporation has opened its second vehicle assembly plant in Kazakhstan, as the South Korean automaker steps up its expansion in the Central Asian region. The company is reported to have sold 25,500 vehicles in the local market last year, with deliveries growing by 62% annually since 2020, according to industry data.
Construction of the complete knock-down (CKD) assembly plant, in Kazakhstan’s north-eastern city of Kostanay, began at the end of 2023 with a total investment of US$ 310 million. The opening ceremony was attended by Kia’s President, Song Ho-sung, and Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Roman Sklyar.
The facility, which has an initial production capacity of 70,000 vehicles per year, began assembling the Kia Sorento SUV earlier this month, with the Sportage SUV scheduled to be added next year. Kia already has a smaller, 10,000 unit/year assembly facility in the country, producing the Sportage.
Other models will be assembled at its plants later on, in line with regional demand, with Kia also targeting neighbouring markets including Uzbekistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Song Ho-sung said in a statement: “The Kazakhstan CKD plant is part of Kia’s global vision to create sustainable value through customer-focused innovation and electrification.”
“Kia opens second CKD plant in Kazakhstan” was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.
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President Donald Trump said Sunday that the Donbas region of Ukraine should be “cut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands, to end a war that has dragged on for nearly four years.“Let it be cut the way it is,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s cut up right now,” adding that you can “leave it the way it is right now.”Video above: Trump and Zelenskyy to discuss U.S. sending missiles to support Ukraine“They can negotiate something later on down the line,” he said. But for now, both sides of the conflict should “stop at the battle line — go home, stop fighting, stop killing people.”Trump’s latest comments came after Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday.The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg’s own oil and gas fields.Video below: Labor unions challenge Trump administration for visa-holder social media surveillanceAccording to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. The Kazakh Energy Ministry on Sunday said, citing a notification from Gazprom, that the plant was temporarily unable to process gas originating in Kazakhstan, “due to an emergency situation following a drone attack.”Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged.Kyiv has ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow’s war effort.Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peaceTrump has edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia, in exchange for an end to Moscow’s aggression.Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump responded: “Well, he’s going to take something.”“They fought and he has a lot of property. He’s won certain property,” Trump said. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.”The interview was aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” but was conducted before Trump spoke to Putin on Thursday and met with Zelenskyy on Friday.Then on Sunday evening, while flying from Florida to Washington, Trump — who plans to meet Putin in Budapest in coming weeks — reiterated his stance that Ukraine will need to give up territory by having the fighting “stop at the lines where they are.”“The rest is very tough to negotiate if you’re going to say, ‘You take this, we take that,’” he said. “You know, there are so many different permutations.”The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by the U.S. leader. In recent weeks, Trump had shown growing impatience with Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war.Contrary to Kyiv’s hopes, Trump did not commit to providing it with Tomahawks following his meeting with Zelenskyy. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision.Russians modified bombs for deeper strikesMeanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors claim that Moscow is modifying its deadly aerial-guided bombs to strike civilians deeper in Ukraine. Local authorities in Kharkiv said Russia struck a residential neighborhood using a new rocket-powered aerial bomb for the first time.Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Russia used the weapon called the UMPB-5R, which can travel up to 130 kilometers (80 miles), in an attack on the city of Lozava on Saturday afternoon. The city lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Kharkiv, a considerable distance for the weapon to fly.Russia continued to strike other parts of Ukraine closer to the front line. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, at least 11 people were injured after Russian drones hit the Shakhtarske area. At least 14 five-story buildings and a store were damaged, said acting regional Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko.A Russian strike also hit a coal mine in the Dnipropetrovk region. Some 192 miners were brought to the surface without injury, the company that operates the mine said.Ukraine’s General Staff also claimed a separate drone strike hit Russia’s Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, in the Samara region near Orenburg, sparking a blaze and damaging its main refining units.Video below: Trump reacts to John Bolton, his former national security adviser, being indictedThe Novokuibyshevsk facility, operated by Russian gas major Rosneft, has an annual capacity of 4.9 million tons, and turns out over 20 kinds of oil-based products. Russian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the Ukrainian claim or discuss any damage.Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early Sunday that its air defense forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones during the night, including 12 over the Samara region, one over the Orenburg region and 11 over the Saratov region neighboring Samara.In turn, Ukraine’s air force reported Sunday that Russia during the night launched 62 drones into Ukrainian territory. It said 40 of these were shot down, or veered off course due to electronic jamming.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the Donbas region of Ukraine should be “cut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands, to end a war that has dragged on for nearly four years.
“Let it be cut the way it is,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s cut up right now,” adding that you can “leave it the way it is right now.”
Video above: Trump and Zelenskyy to discuss U.S. sending missiles to support Ukraine
“They can negotiate something later on down the line,” he said. But for now, both sides of the conflict should “stop at the battle line — go home, stop fighting, stop killing people.”
Trump’s latest comments came after Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday.
The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg’s own oil and gas fields.
Video below: Labor unions challenge Trump administration for visa-holder social media surveillance
According to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. The Kazakh Energy Ministry on Sunday said, citing a notification from Gazprom, that the plant was temporarily unable to process gas originating in Kazakhstan, “due to an emergency situation following a drone attack.”
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged.
Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peace
Trump has edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia, in exchange for an end to Moscow’s aggression.
Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump responded: “Well, he’s going to take something.”
“They fought and he has a lot of property. He’s won certain property,” Trump said. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.”
Then on Sunday evening, while flying from Florida to Washington, Trump — who plans to meet Putin in Budapest in coming weeks — reiterated his stance that Ukraine will need to give up territory by having the fighting “stop at the lines where they are.”
“The rest is very tough to negotiate if you’re going to say, ‘You take this, we take that,’” he said. “You know, there are so many different permutations.”
Mark Schiefelbein
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., as he returns from a trip to Florida.
The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by the U.S. leader. In recent weeks, Trump had shown growing impatience with Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war.
Contrary to Kyiv’s hopes, Trump did not commit to providing it with Tomahawks following his meeting with Zelenskyy. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision.
Russians modified bombs for deeper strikes
Meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors claim that Moscow is modifying its deadly aerial-guided bombs to strike civilians deeper in Ukraine. Local authorities in Kharkiv said Russia struck a residential neighborhood using a new rocket-powered aerial bomb for the first time.
Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Russia used the weapon called the UMPB-5R, which can travel up to 130 kilometers (80 miles), in an attack on the city of Lozava on Saturday afternoon. The city lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Kharkiv, a considerable distance for the weapon to fly.
Russia continued to strike other parts of Ukraine closer to the front line. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, at least 11 people were injured after Russian drones hit the Shakhtarske area. At least 14 five-story buildings and a store were damaged, said acting regional Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko.
A Russian strike also hit a coal mine in the Dnipropetrovk region. Some 192 miners were brought to the surface without injury, the company that operates the mine said.
Ukraine’s General Staff also claimed a separate drone strike hit Russia’s Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, in the Samara region near Orenburg, sparking a blaze and damaging its main refining units.
Video below: Trump reacts to John Bolton, his former national security adviser, being indicted
The Novokuibyshevsk facility, operated by Russian gas major Rosneft, has an annual capacity of 4.9 million tons, and turns out over 20 kinds of oil-based products. Russian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the Ukrainian claim or discuss any damage.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early Sunday that its air defense forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones during the night, including 12 over the Samara region, one over the Orenburg region and 11 over the Saratov region neighboring Samara.
In turn, Ukraine’s air force reported Sunday that Russia during the night launched 62 drones into Ukrainian territory. It said 40 of these were shot down, or veered off course due to electronic jamming.
The opening of the Almaty Museum of Arts signals a turning point for Kazakhstan’s cultural ambitions. Photo: Alexey Poptsov
Like dervishes, dancers turned in circles in their white and rainbow kimonos in the hall of the Almaty Museum of Arts during a performance by Greek artist Nefeli Papadimouli. They were creating space amongst the crowd that receded more and more towards the walls of the building. Two British businesspeople behind me continued to network while the sleeves of the dervishes missed them by just a few centimeters. It was the night of the museum’s opening, and, as surreal as it was, these two people’s intense chatting about investments and deals, as if nothing was happening around them, is not surprising for Kazakhstan. We are in a country known for cars, natural resources and wealth generated through oil exports, and many people here—expats and locals alike—have habits that are hard to break.
Asking someone to put aside industry to appreciate art is a tough sell, though that’s likely to change with the recent openings, just a few days apart, of the Almaty Museum and the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture. Together they mark the beginning of a new phase for Kazakhstan, and its epicenter is the country’s historical cultural capital versus the more business-oriented Astana.
A city of contradictions, Almaty is very green and has many parks but is also plagued by traffic, resulting in it being one of the 25 most polluted cities in the world. The city center has a number of Soviet buildings and decorations that speak to its past—especially to space exploration—but those have been carelessly swallowed by KFC, Starbucks and Burger King. Here, the communist past and consumerist present conflate, and these juxtapositions are reminders that the recent history of Kazakhstan is anything but easy. The large former USSR state was originally composed of nomadic populations coming from Central Asia, and today there is a Muslim-majority population that speaks both Russian and Kazakh, a language once seen as inferior by the Russians, who tried for years to suppress it.
Many of its contemporary artists explore what it means to decolonize from Russia, rebelling against a form of orientalism that differs from that practiced by Western colonial powers. Among them is Almagul Menlibayeva, one of the most widely known contemporary Kazakh artists, whose work reconfigures nomadic narratives, remixing symbols and centering women. She was chosen as the subject of the first solo exhibition at the Almaty Museum of Arts—a comprehensive and stunning show curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong.
Almagul Menlibayeva, Bodyguards of Yassawi II, 2010. Collection of Almaty Museum of Arts
Women are at the center of the Kazakh art scene. “The presence of women artists is not by design; it is simply the reality of our scene,” Almaty Museum director Meruyert Kalieva told Observer. On the day of the opening, she was pregnant and radiant in a white dress, representing not only an authoritative voice for contemporary art in Kazakhstan, but also cutting a goddess-like figure. “Women are the leading voices in Kazakhstan, and it naturally reflects in the museum.”
The evolving Central Asian art scene
It has been a few years since Central Asia began quietly making a place for itself on the international art scene. A significant moment in recent years was the Central Asian focus at the Parisian art fair Asia Now, where a European public could encounter the presentations of Aspan Gallery, founded by Kalieva, and Pygmalion Gallery, founded by Danagul Tolepbay, who was behind the Kazakh Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Central Asian and Caucasus contemporary art was highlighted last year at Abu Dhabi Art, in a special section curated by Elvira Eevr Djaltchinova-Malec, director and founder of the WIMCAA Foundation.
Fernand Léger, Les Femmes au perroquet, 1954-1960. Collection of Almaty Museum of Arts
Both from a market standpoint and a critical standpoint, there is a tendency to consider the region too broadly. Curator Sara Raza, director of the soon-to-open Centre for Contemporary Art in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, developed with her curatorial studio, Punk Orientalism, a number of shows focusing on the region, including projects in Doha. In this context, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—the two most prominent “stans” in terms of emerging art scenes—have shown a degree of rivalry. Both have hosted major events in the past few weeks, but there has been little collaboration between them. While Kazakhstan received in Almaty many art professionals coming from the Bukhara Biennale and the Tashkent Art Centre preview, Uzbekistan did little to facilitate wider engagement, with only a few Uzbek representatives present at the Almaty Museum of Arts opening.
The comparison between the two countries is inevitable, although not entirely fair: Uzbekistan’s government has heavily invested in cultural infrastructure in recent years, using art as part of a broader tourism and heritage strategy, while Kazakhstan continues to rely largely on private initiatives to grow its art scene.
Kazakhstan’s rising art system
In this nascent contemporary art ecosystem, it’s only natural for pivotal art figures like Kalieva to wear many different hats and contribute to the art scene in different ways. At the moment, there seem not to be enough curators in the country, though at the same time, Kazakhstan is less heavy-handed in sourcing art expertise from the West, compared to many other Middle Eastern or Asian countries.
Consider the Almaty Museum’s inaugural curators: Latvian Inga Lace—C-MAP Central and Eastern Europe Fellow at MoMA in New York, curator at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and an otherwise eminent figure in the Eastern European art scene—and Gridthiya Gaweewong, arguably a household name in Southeast Asian contemporary art, having directed the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok and the Thailand Biennale 2023 in Chiang Rai.
Yerbossyn Meldibekov, Monument to an Unknown Hero, 1998, Collection of Almaty Museum of Arts
“When putting together the first presentation for the Almaty Museum of Arts, I trusted our specialists, like Gridthiya and Inga, in order to bring new visions and new feelings to contemporary art,” Kalieva said. “My role is to balance these different mentalities and find compromises, while giving artists complete freedom in temporary exhibitions.”
Seventy percent of the works in the museum come from the personal collection of the Almaty Museum of Arts founder Nurlan Smagulov. For him, the museum is both a personal and a national endeavor. “During the Soviet Union, everything was prohibited,” he told Observer. “Going abroad was impossible. Nobody collected art, and artists could only work in socialist realism. Today we have freedom, and I still cannot get enough of it. Building this museum is my way of making sure this freedom translates into art.”
Smagulov’s passion for art emerged long before the museum was conceived: “When I was 17, studying in Moscow, I used to go to the Pushkin Museum during lunch breaks. Seeing the Impressionists was like a bombshell to me,” he recalled. “At that time, I never thought I would leave the country, let alone collect art. Today I have some of these works in my collection, and it still feels unreal that I could bring them back to Kazakhstan.”
The Almaty Museum’s building was designed to convey this idea of openness, with spacious and squared-off architecture featuring pale limestone and rust-colored window frames reminiscent of Richard Serra sculptures. The result is a warm, expansive, luminous and orderly space that feels open but also structured.
Almagul Menlibayeva, Bodyguards of Yassawi II, 1997. Photo: Deonisy Mit
It’s a shame that during the week of the opening, international audiences coming to Almaty didn’t have any points of comparison or historical progression, as the main public art museum in Almaty, Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, was closed for renovation. Taken pessimistically, this shows how little vested interest the government has in the organic development of its art scene. We are left to wonder just how much private taste shapes a country’s art history. “Choosing works is a lot of responsibility. We visited many museums, studied carefully, and selected works with a strong connection to our region,” Smagulov asserted. “This is not about ticking boxes with blue-chip names. Every work here is chosen for its relation to Kazakhstan.”
Regional shifts in politics and culture
The Almaty Museum of Arts opens at a very particular time for the region. With the war in Ukraine and the decline of the art scene in Russia, it’s worth considering whether Kazakhstan, and the other Central Asian “stans,” might become a new center for contemporary art from the entire region, something that is no longer possible in Moscow or Saint Petersburg.
The permanent collection of the Almaty Museum doesn’t veer much towards Russia; it is, as Smagulov said, very much focused on Kazakh and Central Asian art. “Kazakhstan has always been more Eurasian than Russia. Around 30 percent of our territory is in Europe, and with our large Russian population, our country is often seen as more Westernized than Uzbekistan. But at the same time, our nomadic roots and openness set us apart. We don’t close ourselves behind fences; we live in the open steppe.” Smagulov emphasized that the museum sees itself as part of a decolonial process. “This is about a longer search for Kazakh identity apart from Soviet ideology. You can already see it in the art of the 1960s. Now it has become even more urgent.”
He added that he conceived the museum as part of a larger ecosystem: “We hope the Almaty Museum will have a Bilbao effect for the city, attracting both international guests and visitors from across Kazakhstan. But more than that, we want to create ambitious projects and make sure Kazakh artists are represented abroad, so people know how rich our country is in poetry and art.”
Kazakhstan has established the first state-sponsored crypto fund, the Alem Crypto Fund, which made its initial investment in BNB.
Kazakhstan has launched the Alem Crypto Fund, the country’s first state-backed fund to make an initial investment in digital assets.
The fund’s choice to invest in Binance Coin (BNB) instead of Bitcoin (BTC) has been praised by Binance executives as a step toward institutional recognition of BNB.
New Reserve Strategy
The Kazakhstan Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development announced that the new Alem Crypto Fund has officially made its first BNB purchase. Owned by the Qazaqstan Venture Group and operating under the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), this move represents the country’s first state-backed reserve investment in digital assets.
The addition of BNB to its treasury is a major shift for Kazakhstan, which, up till now, has relied on commodities like uranium, oil, and gas to maintain its reserves. Additionally, the fund’s choice to invest in Binance’s native token instead of Bitcoin, unlike previous government approaches, stands out in the world’s largest crypto exchange ecosystem.
The development is part of a growing trend of nations that are considering digital asset reserves. However, Kazakhstan’s approach is more institutional and focused on building infrastructure.
While the exact amount spent on the BNB coin was not disclosed, the Binance community has enthusiastically welcomed Kazakhstan’s action. CEO Richard Teng said via X that the country is “setting the pace in digital finance,” while Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao described BNB’s elevation to a state-level asset as a milestone alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The announcement occurred just a week after Kazakhstan, Mastercard, Intebix, and Eurasian Bank introduced the tenge-pegged stablecoin KZTE on the Solana network.
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Officials say that the Alem Fund’s initial acquisition demonstrates the country’s ambition and prudence. The use of BNB has spread beyond exchange users to companies using it for treasury management, and Kazakhstan’s action might speed up this trend on a national scale.
With a population of over 20 million, the Central Asian country has long been a major centre for crypto mining. According to Bitcoin hashrate, which measures the total amount of processing power utilised by miners to secure the network and handle transactions, it was rated second in the world in 2021.
Elsewhere, Kazakhstan had previously announced plans to create a pilot economic zone called “CryptoCity,” where crypto payments will be accepted under government supervision. The goal of the project is to test the integration of digital currencies into regular business while adhering to financial rules.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took a further step earlier this month, advocating for the establishment of a “full-fledged ecosystem of digital assets” and a strategic crypto reserve. He emphasized the government’s intention to integrate crypto into the nation’s long-term economic structure by directing MPs to develop full legislation by 2026.
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French qualifier Valentin Royer ousted No. 1 seed Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-6 (2) on Saturday at the Lynx & Co Hangzhou Open in China.
It was the opener for Rublev, who had a first-round bye. For Royer, it was his first win over a Top 20 opponent, fueled by 32 winners to 19 for the Russian.
Royer advanced to the quarterfinals and will play Learner Tien, who defeated Italian Giulio Zeppieri 6-4, 6-3. Also moving into the quarters were third-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, who came from behind to beat Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours, 13 minutes.
Corentin Moutet of France and Tomas Martin Etcheverry will face off in another quarterfinal. Fourth-seeded Moutet eliminated fellow Frenchman Arthur Cazaux 6-7 (1), 6-3, 7-6 (3). Etcheverry, of Argentina, sent Australian Rinky Hijikata packing 6-1, 6-4.
Yibing Wu defeated dropped the first set but came back to defeat Sebastian Korda 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Czech Dalibor Svrcina eliminated China’s Zhizhen Zhang 6-4, 6-3.
Chengdu Open
Taro Daniel of Japan and Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan advanced to the quarterfinals in upsets in Chengdu, China.
Daniel topped third seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to move on to his first quarterfinal since Auckland in January 2024. He will play Shevchenko, who took out sixth seed Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Top seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy needed three sets to knock out Serbia’s Dino Prizmic 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. Musetti had 10 aces and 11 unforced errors. Next up for Musetti is qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, who topped Mackenzie McDonald 6-2, 7-6 (4).
InDrive, known for its bidding-based ride-hailing model across Asia and Latin America, is rolling out a “super-app” strategy aimed at frontier markets — expanding beyond cabs to deliver daily essentials to its users.
Beginning with grocery deliveries in Kazakhstan, InDrive plans to expand into multiple verticals over the next 12 months across its top markets, including Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Peru, and Mexico. The shift comes on the heels of more than 360 million app downloads and 6.5 billion transactions globally, cementing its position as the world’s second most-downloaded ride-hailing app, behind Uber, since 2022.
“If customers use you more frequently, then, of course, they stay longer, they’re more valuable in the ecosystem, and they’re just more loyal overall,” said Andries Smit, chief growth business officer at InDrive, in an exclusive interview.
InDrive chose grocery delivery as its first expansion move after seeing rapid growth in its delivery segment — with over 41 million orders completed worldwide in 2024 and more than 14 million in Q2 2025 alone — making it one of the fastest-scaling categories in the company’s portfolio.
The Mountain View, California-based company has launched its grocery delivery service in Kazakhstan, offering over 5,000 products with a 15-minute delivery promise. Early pilots in the Central Asian country yielded a net promoter score of 83% — signaling high customer satisfaction — and an average of five grocery orders per user per month, the company said.
Smit told TechCrunch that InDrive is using a dark store model for grocery deliveries in Kazakhstan, with most items focused on ready-to-eat meals and around 10% consisting of fresh products — part of a strategy to boost customer retention. He added that the model will vary in other regions, where the company is open to partnering locally, particularly in markets with a dense network of mom-and-pop stores.
Without sharing specifics, Smit said that the company has added 30% more dark stores in the country since August.
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Why is Kazakhstan the first market?
InDrive currently operates in 982 cities across 48 countries globally and leads in eight of them. But then why has it picked Kazakhstan as the first market for its super-app move?
Smit told TechCrunch that the company decided to do so after seeing a “huge uptick” in consumers going digital in the country, which is the largest economy across Central Asia. InDrive also has its largest headcount in Kazakhstan, serving as a central hub for its R&D and operations.
InDrive did not disclose specific growth metrics for its operations in Kazakhstan. However, a recent report by Dealroom, published in collaboration with the government-backed tech park Astana Hub, noted that the company saw a 44% growth in the country over the past 12 months.
The report also valued Kazakhstan’s tech ecosystem at $26 billion — an 18-fold jump since 2019 — suggesting a sharp rise in local startup formation, funding, and digital services.
Image Credits:Dealroom
Kazakhstan already has grocery delivery apps to fulfill some of the demand. Nonetheless, InDrive wants to win the market predominantly with affordable pricing — aiming to be the Aldi of online groceries.
“There is access and inequality, and even access issues with some of the groceries,” said Smit. “Some of our cost-conscious consumers end up not buying from the right places or not buying the right goods, and they recognize that, but they feel they have no other choice.”
InDrive’s super-app: a differentiator or déjà vu
Many companies have tried to succeed with super apps. While some, like WeChat and Gojek, have found success, others — including Meta — have struggled to gain traction.
Smit, who worked with WeChat in his former role in 2016, experienced how the integrated experience on the Chinese app worked well. He told TechCrunch that, by leveraging his expertise and utilizing AI capabilities, InDrive plans to make its super-app strategy successful. The AI integration would help bring personalization to users and make services accessible to people with disabilities and those with lower literacy, he said.
InDrive’s Grocery Delivery service in KazakhstanImage Credits:InDrive
In November 2023, InDrive announced a venture and merger and acquisition arm to invest up to $100 million over the next few years. Smit told TechCrunch that of that venture, about 30% has already been deployed on the super-app strategy.
The company invested in Pakistan’s grocery startup, Krave Mart, in December as part of that venture. However, there is no concrete timeline on when InDrive’s app will offer grocery deliveries to users in Pakistan.
InDrive’s arch-rival Uber has also expanded its service portfolio, adding verticals like food delivery through Uber Eats in select markets. Smit said InDrive targets a different customer segment — one that Uber typically doesn’t serve — though there is some overlap in certain regions.
“By and large, we really support and play into a cost-conscious consumer,” he said.
India as a “puzzle” market
In addition to frontier markets including Kazakhstan, InDrive has been operating in India for some time, competing with Uber as well as homegrown players such as Ola and Rapido. However, the company has not picked up in the South Asian nation. Uber even piloted a version of InDrive’s bidding model in India, attempting to replicate the approach.
Data from Appfigures exclusively shared with TechCrunch shows that InDrive saw 1.07 million fewer downloads year-to-date compared to the same period in 2024 — a 22.6% decline. In contrast, Uber added 8.02 million downloads, up 60.6%, while Ola gained 1.55 million, a 13.2% increase. Rapido emerged as the fastest-growing player, with 14.9 million additional downloads — an 80.9% surge.
“India is a puzzle for us,” Smit told TechCrunch. “India is still growing, and we are focused… we’ve decided to focus very quickly on key cities where we really think we want to operate strongly.”
Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
The company is testing different models, especially in the freight business, though it is known for allowing riders to haggle with drivers. These include different payment mechanisms for drivers to get paid daily and even go with a specific take rate, Smit said.
InDrive faced early challenges and saw limited success at first — even in markets like Pakistan, where it later became the leading ride-hailing platform following Uber’s exit.
“We’ve had sleeper markets where the markets sort of drifted, and then for whatever case, maybe one of the competitors falters,” Smit said.
More than a dozen riders and drivers in India told TechCrunch that safety concerns were a key reason they no longer prefer using InDrive. Some drivers said the app’s bidding model had been exploited by riders — and, in some cases, even by fellow drivers posing as riders to hassle their peers by aggressively haggling.
Smit said that the company prioritizes safety and customer service.
“Yes, we need to do a lot more in talking to this safety perception and in teaching and educating our drivers and passengers,” he said.
Next verticals in plans
InDrive plans to expand its super-app offering by launching new services tailored to local market needs. Smit told TechCrunch that these could include financial services. One example is already live in markets including Brazil and Mexico, where drivers can access small loans through the ride-hailing app. The company is exploring ways to extend this to passengers — and potentially to small businesses involved in deliveries, the executive added.
The company also plans to explore a service that enables micro-mobility, allowing its consumers to connect with local businesses and public transportation services.
“We want to be city-specific, and it could be a bouquet of different services,” Smit said. “We want to capture the key verticals that we have capability for, that we know and are very close to our core… But if we have no experience in running, for those kinds of services, we will definitely just partner with the right player.”
BERLIN — At its summit this week, the European Union is threatening to name and shame more than a dozen Chinese companies that, it claims, are supplying critical technology to equip Russia’s war machine.
But what about the Western companies that make dual-use and other advanced gear that is subject to sanctions and yet, according to an analysis of wreckage found on the Ukrainian battlefield, is used in Russian Kalibr missiles, Orlan drones and Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopters?
Radio silence.
So here’s a trivia question for you: Which company is the leading maker of the so-called “high-priority battlefield items” trafficked to Russia that the Western coalition wants to interdict?
If you said Intel, then go to the top of the class: According to the sanctions team at the Kyiv School of Economics, the U.S. semiconductor giant again leads the pack this year. It’s followed by Huawei of China. Then come Analog Devices, AMD, Texas Instruments and IBM — all of which are American.
Russian imports of microelectronics, wireless and satellite navigation systems and other critical parts subject to sanctions have recovered to near pre-war levels with a monthly run rate of $900 million in the first nine months of this year, according to a forthcoming report from the Kyiv School’s analytical center, the KSE Institute.
All of this indicates that, while Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, had a temporary impact, Moscow and its helpers have largely succeeded in reconfiguring supply chains — with the help of China, Hong Kong and countries in Russia’s backyard like Kazakhstan and NATO member Turkey.
That in turn begs the question as to whether, as the EU strives to deliver a 12th package of sanctions against Russia in time for a leaders’ summit on Thursday, the bloc is serving up yet another case study for the definition of insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
For Elina Ribakova, director of the international program at the KSE Institute, the Western private sector must also be held to account. It should, she argues, be required to track its products along the entire value chain to their final destination — just as banks were forced to tighten anti-money laundering controls and customer checks after the 2008 crash.
“We have a policy in a void. We have put it on paper but we don’t have any infrastructure for the private sector to comply — or for us to check,” Ribakova told POLITICO. “We need to have the private sector enforce and implement this.”
Intel, responding to a request for comment, said it had suspended all shipments to Russia and Belarus, its ally, and that it was compliant with sanctions and export controls against both countries issued by the U.S. and its allies.
“While we do not always know nor can we control what products our customers create or the applications end-users may develop, Intel does not support or tolerate our products being used to violate human rights,” the company said in a statement. “Where we become aware of a concern that Intel products are being used by a business partner in connection with abuses of human rights, we will restrict or cease business with the third party until and unless we have high confidence that Intel’s products are not being used to violate human rights.”
As for Europe, while its companies may not feature among the top makers of critical technology sold to Russia, its industrial businesses are facing growing scrutiny over the supply of machinery and spare parts — often via third countries like Kazakhstan that have seen suspicious surges in imports.
It’s here, also, that Europe has fallen down.
In imposing sanctions, it’s a case of “all for one” — the bloc has jointly agreed on and implemented measures affecting everything from energy to banking.
But enforcement is a matter for individual member countries. Some are on board with the program. Others, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, overtly sympathize with Russia. And others, still, are conflicted — as when it emerged that the husband of hawkish Estonian premier Kaja Kallas owned a stake in a freight firm that still did business in Russia.
Then there are countries like neutral Austria, with historical ties to the Soviet military-industrial complex that have left politicians and law enforcement with a huge blind spot.
That’s important because, as independent researcher Kamil Galeev put it to POLITICO, Russia today still upholds an organizing principle dating back to the early Soviet era that civilian industry should “be able to switch 100 percent to military production should the need arise.”
Justice delayed
Despite evidence of widespread breaches, only a handful of sanctions cases are being pursued by European law enforcement. Among them, German prosecutors have secured the arrest of a businessman suspected of supplying precision lathes to two Russian companies that make sniper rifles.
But the wheels of justice turn slowly: The arrest in August of Ulli S. — prosecutors, following German tradition, have not published his full name — relates to the initial imposition of Western sanctions over Russia’s occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The press had already cracked the case by the time the suspect appeared in court, naming DMG Mori — a Japanese-German joint venture — as the supplier. One customer was Kalashnikov, maker of the famed AK-47 rifle. The other was Promtekhnologia, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. and featured in POLITICO’s sniper bullets investigation. Promtekhnologia makes the Orsis sniper rifle promoted by action movie actor Steven Seagal — now a Russian citizen — and used by President Vladimir Putin’s men in Ukraine.
DMG Mori, formerly called Gildemeister, suspended sales to Russia after the full-scale invasion. But, because it has closed down its operations in the country, it says it is no longer able to keep control over its machines made there (although an internal probe did find that they were being used for civilian purposes). The German Federal Prosecutor did not respond to a request for comment.
The real bad actors
It’s not just in stopping imports to Russia that sanctions are falling short of their stated intention.
Vladimir Putin’s former wife, Lyudmila (left), and her new partner have splashed the cash on luxury property investments in Spain, Switzerland and France a POLITICO investigation found | Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Russians with close ties to Putin — and their money — continue to be more than welcome in Europe despite the death and destruction his regime has unleashed. His former wife, Lyudmila, and her new partner have splashed the cash on luxury property investments in Spain, Switzerland and France, as a POLITICO investigation found at the start of the year.
And when the European Council — the intergovernmental branch of the EU — does sanction Russian business leaders suspected of aiding and abetting the Putin regime, it has often relied on slipshod evidence that makes the decisions easy to challenge in court, POLITICO has also found.
Nearly 1,600 Western multinationals continue, meanwhile, to do business in Russia. Many that announced they would pull out have struggled to do so, as POLITICO discovered when it investigated Western liquor companies that said they had quit Russia — only to find that their booze was still freely available. And some companies that did stay, like Danone and Carlsberg, have been shaken down by Putin and his cronies — a case of Russian roulette, if ever there was one.
With the EU apparently lacking the means, or the political will, to do more to economically isolate Russia, the bloc is sending its sanctions envoy, David O’Sullivan, on a mission to apply moral suasion to countries that are, as he diplomatically puts it, “not aligned” on sanctions.
On the high-priority battlefield technology, Sullivan told POLITICO’s EU Confidential podcast last month that the EU has had “a limited success — but in an area which is absolutely critical to the defense of Ukraine.”
More broadly, he said: “The sanctions are a sort of slow puncture of the Russian economy. Perhaps not the blowout that some people initially predicted, but … the air is escaping from the tire and sooner or later the vehicle is going to become impossible to drive.”
To be fair, O’Sullivan isn’t overselling the efficacy of sanctions. And he may ultimately be proven right.
But he only will be vindicated if Western governments do a better job of holding their own businesses to account in stemming the flows of technology, equipment and spare parts that sustain Putin and his war of aggression.
That will come down to whether they have the will to enforce their decisions. And the evidence so far is that they don’t.
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference on Oct. 13,2023, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Russia is watching very closely as Western nations try to build alliances in what has traditionally been seen as its “backyard” and sphere of influence.
One top official in Moscow was fuming as he claimed the West was “luring” its “neighbours, friends, and allies” away from Russia.
The latest Western leader to court Central Asia is French President Emmanuel Macron. Visiting oil- and mineral-rich Kazakhstan on Wednesday, he complimented the former Soviet state for refusing to side with Moscow against Ukraine.
“I don’t underestimate by any means the geopolitical difficulties, the pressures … that some may be putting on you,” Macron said as he addressed his Kazakh counterpart, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in Astana.
“France values … the path you are following for your country, refusing to be a vassal of any power and seeking to build numerous and balanced relations with different countries,” he said.
The French leader’s comments are likely to have enraged Moscow, which is already watching Western efforts to court Central Asia with suspicion and disdain. CNBC has asked the Kremlin to comment on Macron’s trip and is awaiting a response.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview last week that the West was trying to pull Russia’s “neighbours, friends and allies” away from it.
“They have created numerous formats such as ‘Central Asia plus’ involving the United States, the EU, and Japan … On top of the Central Asia plus EU format, the Germans have created their own format. The French won’t be wasting time and will do the same,” he said.
“These frameworks for diplomatic engagements are aimed at luring our Central Asian neighbours, friends, and allies towards the West which promises them economic and trade incentives and delivers relatively modest aid programmes.”
L-R: Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedow, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko enter the hall during the Commonwealth of Independent States’ Head of States Meeting at the Ala-Archa State Residence on Oct. 13, 2023, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Lavrov said alliances with the West could not be “compared with the benefits the Central Asian countries enjoy from cooperating with Russia … in sensitive areas such as border security, law enforcement training, and traditional security.”
He claimed that Western countries were “funneling money and resources into equipment and technology supplied to these regions” in a bid to woo them, adding, “We openly discuss these matters with our Central Asian brothers.”
Mark Galeotti, a London-based political scientist, lecturer and author of several books on Russia, told CNBC Thursday that Macron’s visit to Central Asia would have touched a nerve in Moscow but that Central Asia had increasingly been looking elsewhere, to Europe, China and the United States, for trade and security guarantees.
“Yes, the Russians are grumbling at what they see as Macron’s posturing … but it’s more that this kind of initiative reminds them of the fact that, really, they are losing their authority in Central Asia.”
“There clearly is concern [in Russia at Central Asia’s geopolitical trajectory], but more than anything else, I think the concern is driven by a painful awareness, that, in a way, Central Asia has already been lost,” Galeotti said.
“Essentially, Moscow’s main hold on Central Asia had long been, essentially, as a security guarantor,” he noted, adding that “Russia was the country you went to when you were looking for assistance in security matters.”
“But ever since February of last year [when it invaded Ukraine], we’ve seen a very rapid decline in Russia’s authority in Central Asia.”
The degree to which a sense of “brotherhood” is felt in Central Asia’s leadership toward Russia is debatable.
Central Asian states have to tread a fine line with Moscow, being careful not to alienate or antagonize their powerful neighbor while also trying to forge their own independent international trade and foreign policies with the West and China.
This ambivalent position has often led Central Asian states “sitting on the fence” when it comes to certain geopolitical matters, such as the war in Ukraine.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as neighboring Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, were among 35 U.N. members that abstained on a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of four mostly Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine last year. Central Asian state Tajikistan was absent from the vote.
Voting results shown during a U.N. General Assembly emergency meeting to discuss Russian annexations in Ukraine at the U.N. headquarters in New York City on Oct. 12, 2022.
Ed Jones | Afp | Getty Images
Only one of Russia’s neighbors, Belarus — its closest ally in its backyard — was among the five countries to reject the resolution condemning the annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. The other countries were North Korea, Nicaragua, Russia and Syria.
Central Asian states have been accused of helping Russia to dodge Western sanctions imposed on it for the invasion of Ukraine, with European and Chinese products exported to Central Asia and then funneled into Russia.
Nonetheless, the war in Ukraine has created the irony that a distracted Russia has lost a degree of power, control and leverage over its own wider “backyard” made up of former Soviet states, stretching from the South Caucasus region — which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia — to Central Asia.
Russia has already felt aggrieved to see former Soviet republics incorporated into the West, such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and to watch as others like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova head in the same direction. Kyiv’s leaning toward the West over the past 20 years laid the foundation for the conflict we see today, with Russia looking to reassert its power and influence over its neighborhood.
Russia’s “final backstop of authority was the possibility that it could invade or intervene,” Galeotti noted, “but now, with 97% of the Russian army mired in Ukraine, no one’s really worried about that anymore.”
There’s certainly a tussle for influence that’s taking place in Central Asia, with China also “courting” the region to a certain extent.
China held a summit with Central Asian states in early summer, months before U.S. President Joe Biden met with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in September, as part of the first ever presidential summit of the “C5+1” format launched in 2015. The group pledged to expand their economic and security cooperation.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Alexander Titov, lecturer in modern European history at Queen’s University of Belfast, told CNBC that the position of Central Asian states — “squeezed” between Russia to the west, China to the east and Afghanistan to the south — added complexity and nuance to the region’s international relations.
Still, while Russia has been vocally critical of Europe’s and the U.S.’ engagement with Central Asia, it has been ostensibly less so when it comes to its ally China. Analysts say this is based on Moscow’s calculation that China will remain more of a backseat partner in the region, for now at least.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan, at the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, in Beijing on Oct. 19, 2023.
“While there clearly is alignment between Russia and China when it comes to Central Asia, and particularly when it comes to keeping ‘the West’ out of the region after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia is unlikely to relinquish completely its traditional grip on the region, nor is China likely to actively wrestle Moscow for greater control in the near future,” global security analysts Anastassiya Mahon and Stefan Wolff wrote in analysis for the U.K.-based Foreign Policy Centre think tank.
“While there is undoubtedly a rebalancing of power afoot between Russia and China, this is likely to take the form of a gradual power transition.”
The analysts noted that “while the West will hardly be seen as an alternative in such a hegemonic power transition from Russia to China, the transition itself, nevertheless, offers opportunities.”
The U.S., U.K., and EU can strengthen their own engagement and cooperation with Central Asia, they noted, “precisely because this presents the states there with a chance for some re-balancing of their own and for strengthening their traditional aspiration for a multi-vector foreign policy.”
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron travels on Wednesday to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where he hopes to secure uranium for his country’s nuclear plants.
The trip comes as geopolitical tensions grow with the EU’s current major suppliers, Niger and Russia.
Macron’s visit to the two countries aims to expand French influence in an area which has strong ties with Russia and is now also growing closer to China, an Elysée official said.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are respectively France’s largest and third-largest suppliers of uranium, which is burned to fuel nuclear plants.
Last summer a military junta took over Niger, which supplies 15 percent of France’s uranium needs, sparking questions as to whether the African country can continue to be a reliable source. Uncertainty has also surrounded imports of Russian uranium since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Niger raises questions, Russia could raise questions in the long term [if] the EU imposes sanctions on the nuclear sector. Macron’s visit to Central Asia helps to anticipate those concerns,” said Phuc-Vinh Nguyen, an energy expert at the Jacques Delors Institute think tank in Paris.
Russia’s nuclear sector has not been targeted by EU sanctions so far, but member countries continue to turn away from Moscow. The quantity of uranium the EU imported from Russia fell by 16 percent last year from 2021, while the amount from Kazakhstan rose by over 14 percent.
Earlier this year, Yerzhan Mukanov, CEO of the country’s state-run nuclear firm Kazatomprom, told POLITICO he was seeing increasing interest from Europe, and that Kazakhstan “intends to become a significant contributor to the European nuclear market.”
French nuclear firm Orano is active in Kazakhstan, where it has been operating uranium mines since the 1990s, and more recently in Uzbekistan. Orano President Claude Imauven is accompanying Macron on his trip along with 14 other French executives, including Luc Remont, head of French energy giant EDF.
An Elysée official said that new contracts and business partnerships will be announced during the trip, including in the energy sector.
EDF has also positioned itself to become a supplier of nuclear reactors for Kazakhstan’s first nuclear plant.
The visit comes as Brussels competes with China for influence in the region via investment programs focused on infrastructure.
Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are benefitting from Chinese investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, with their presidents attending a high-level meeting on the subject in Beijing in October. The EU is trying to gain influence in the two countries by involvingthem in cooperation and investment projects under its “Global Gateway” initiative, the bloc’s response to Belt and Road.
Freedom Holding CEO Timur Turlov speaks during a press interview in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 10, 2019.
Maxim Shemetov | Reuters
Freedom Holding, a Nasdaq-traded Kazakh financial firm that’s been the target of prominent short sellers, is being investigated by federal prosecutors and Securities and Exchange Commission counsel over compliance issues, insider stock moves, and an offshore affiliate tied to sanctioned individuals, CNBC has learned.
The SEC’s Boston regional office has been probing Freedom for months, according to documents seen by CNBC and people familiar with the matter. The company, headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has a $5 billion market cap and is controlled and majority-owned by 35-year-old billionaire CEO Timur Turlov, a former Russian citizen.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts is also making preliminary inquiries into Freedom, documents seen by CNBC show. Such inquiries often occur after a civil probe unearths evidence of possible crimes.
Freedom shares fell as much as 9.3% Friday morning after CNBC’s report.
The overlapping SEC and DOJ probes are scrutinizing the firm’s internal controls and offshore operations, as well as Turlov’s claims that Freedom can get its largely Russian client base access to hot U.S. IPOs, according to the documents and sources.
Turlov and Freedom are aware of the SEC probe, which has been going on for months, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The Justice Department’s involvement with these issues is more recent, documents show. Probes of this kind can take years and may not lead to criminal or civil charges. So far, there have been no formal charges or allegations of wrongdoing.
Turlov didn’t respond to CNBC’s interview request, but in an interview that was published by a Kazakh outlet Thursday, he acknowledged that “almost all global regulators came to us this summer.”
Freedom declined to comment.
An SEC spokesperson told CNBC that it doesn’t comment on the existence or nonexistence of an investigation.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
The SEC has been aware of potential securities violations at Freedom since at least 2022. Some of the issues that caught investigators’attention —including allegations related to sanctions violations, IPO access and stock trading — were alsoraised in an August report from short seller Hindenburg Research, which claimed that Freedom “still does business in the Russian market, and that the company has openly flouted sanctions along with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) rules.”
The SEC intensified its scrutiny after the Hindenburg report and an analysis published in April by short seller Citron Research, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Freedom’s website describes the company as a provider of investment banking and brokerage services to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Its website lists two addresses in the U.S., one in New York and the other at a Las Vegas co-working and virtual office space.
The company leases a 15,250-square-foot office in the Trump Building in New York’s Financial District, according to filings. The two floors house Freedom’s existing U.S. operations, including a brokerage firm registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Freedom says in filings it has nearly 3,700 employees and 370,000 brokerage customers.
The Trump Building at 40 Wall St. in New York.
Jin Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Turlov founded Freedom in 2010, and by 2013 he had expanded the business from Moscow to the EU. The company said it divested its Russian businessin February, almost a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Turlov, a former citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean as well as Russia, owns 71% of Freedom shares, worth roughly $3.6 billion.
The Hindenburg report, in part, alleged that Freedom helped sanctioned individuals gain access to the U.S. financial system through a Belizean holding company, also owned by Turlov, that helped funnel and obfuscate transactions. In SEC filings, Freedom acknowledged it does business with sanctioned individuals through the Belize affiliate, but denies those individuals have access to U.S., U.K. or EU financial systems through Freedom.
The Belizean entity, incorporated in 2014, is now named Freedom Securities Trading Belize, or FST Belize.
“FST Belize, we have the same sanctions compliance as in the entire holding,” Turlov said in an August interview with a publication in Kazakhstan. “There is no reason for sanctions, if there is no involvement of U.S. representatives in the operation.”
FST Belizeholds Kazakh licenses that let it operate a securities trading platform and process international payments and money transfers, according to the company. In 2021, the Kazakh government added the subsidiary to a list of companies “with signs of illegal activity.”
In response, Freedom said it “fully complies” with local laws and regulations wherever it operates.
Anotherpoint of inquiry by U.S. authorities is the trading activity of Freedom stock, which was uplisted to the Nasdaq in 2019 under the ticker FRHC after previously trading over the counter.
Historically, negative reports from established short sellers will hurt a company’s stock. Freedom shares dipped about 8% the two trading days that followed Hindenburg’s report. They quickly rebounded, including a 25% jump on Aug. 18, with no apparent explanation.
Hindenburg alleged that Freedom and Turlov protected the company’s stock from wild swings by ensuring that clients held the shares in their brokerage accounts, reducing the risk of volatility.
At least five law firms have said they’re investigating claims on behalf of investors for potential violations of securities law since the Hindenburg report.
Citron compared Freedom to Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed and allegedly fraudulent trading firm, Alameda Research. The investment firm said Turlov’s ties to Russia and its continued brokerage operations in the country made the company a prime candidate for an SEC investigation.
Freedom Holding’s main offices are in Esentai Tower, the tallest building in Kazakhstan’s financial hub, the city of Almaty. Other tenants in the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed building include the Ritz-Carlton Almaty and Ernst & Young’s Kazakhstan operations.
Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Freedom has faced prior regulatory challenges.
In July, the company’s European subsidiary paid a 50,000 euro fine to the Cypriot securities regulator over failures in its money laundering and anti-terrorist financing controls.
And last year, Freedom’s former U.S. auditor, WSRP, was replaced by Deloitte Kazakhstan, after the U.S. audit regulator found that three of Freedom’s auditors at WSRP failed to follow proper standards of review. Freedom’s auditors were sanctioned and barred for what the regulatorsaid was a failure to assess the true nature of the company’s relationship with its Belize entity.
Those auditors are eligible to reapply for reinstatement. But WSRP stepped down as Freedom’s auditor. Deloitte Kazakhstan helped Freedom restate the prior auditor’s erroneous filings to the SEC and regain compliance with exchange rules, filings show.
Deloitte’s Kazakh office is just a few blocks away from Freedom’s headquarters, on the outskirts of Kazakhstan’s largest city and financial hub. Freedom is the only SEC-registered U.S. company that Deloitte Kazakhstan audits, according to Public Company Accounting Oversight Board records.
A view from Almaty’s Esentai Tower, where Freedom’s head offices are. The offices of Deloitte Kazakhstan, Freedom’s latest auditor, can be seen in the distance, near the building with a green illuminated sign.
Wwd | Penske Media | Getty Images
“First thing to consider is that the company has been audited by the largest big-4 auditor, Deloitte,” Turlov said, in his response to Hindenburg’s report.
Deloitte and Roman Sattarov, the Deloitte partner overseeing Freedom’s audit, didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Freedom is still trying to expand in the U.S. In February, the company agreed to pay $400 million, primarily in stock, for middle-market investment bank Maxim Group. Maxim has worked on IPOs for many smaller companies and has been part of bigger deals, such as PIMCO Access Income Fund’s $866 million offering in 2022.
Turlov isn’t letting the U.S. probes keep him away. He traveledto New York last month.
“This week talking to our US office, partners and regulators,” he wrote in a Sept. 25 post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
A spokesperson for Turlov said he was “definitely not meeting with regulators.”
In Turlov’s interview published Thursday in Kazakhstan, he didn’t say which U.S. regulators approached the company, but said it all stemmed from Hindenburg’s report, which he called “misinformation.”
Russian ports and ships on the Black Sea — including tankers carrying millions of barrels of oil to Europe — could justifiably be attacked by the Ukrainian military as part of efforts to weaken Moscow’s war machine, a senior Kyiv official warned Monday in the wake of two recent attacks on Russian vessels.
“Everything the Russians are moving back and forth on the Black Sea are our valid military targets,” Oleg Ustenko, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told POLITICO, saying the move was retaliation for Russia withdrawing from the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal and unleashing a series of missile attacks on agricultural stores and ports.
“This story started with Russia blocking the grain corridor, threatening to attack our vessels, destroying our ports,” Ustenko said. “Our maritime infrastructure is under constant attack.”
Over the weekend, Ukraine declared the waters around Russia’s Black Sea ports a “war risk area” from August 23 “until further notice.” The zone includes major Russian ports like Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi and Taman.
That’s causing insurance rates for ships to skyrocket and could imperil one of Russia’s main export routes for oil and oil products — key in ensuring the Kremlin has enough cash to keep waging war against Ukraine.
“This story started with Russia blocking the grain corridor, threatening to attack our vessels, destroying our ports,” Ustenko said | Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images
“After this weekend, the Black Sea feels like a more dangerous place for international shipping, and it was already very dangerous,” said Byron McKinney, director with S&P Global Market Intelligence. “Many vessels simply don’t go to the area. Insurance is pretty much nonexistent. Where there are insurance rates they’re very high and that’s only going to increase.”
On Saturday, Russia’s federal maritime agency, Rosmorrechflot, reported that a Russian tanker, the Sig, had been hit in an apparent strike by Ukrainian forces while sailing close to Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula.
“The tanker received a hit on its engine room, close to the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of an attack by a sea drone,” officials said.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said that as long as Russians “terrorize peaceful Ukrainian cities and destroy grain condemning hundreds of millions to starvation,” there would be “no more safe waters or peaceful harbors for you in the Black and Azov Seas.”
Crude crisis
Last month, Russia shipped almost 59 million barrels of crude oil, a third of its overall exports, from the strategic Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to intelligence firm Kpler. Of that, 32 million barrels went to EU countries. The port also handles other fuels like diesel, gasoil and naphtha in addition to grain destined for the global market.
Novorossiysk is also where the Caspian Pipeline Consortium oil conduit terminates, bringing up to 1.3 million barrels a day of oil from Kazakhstan — from where it is shipped on to world markets.
Last month, Russia shipped almost 59 million barrels of crude oil | Francois Lo Presti/AFP via Getty Images
Novorossiysk is also home to a major naval base of the Black Sea Fleet. Last week, a Ukrainian sea drone hit and damaged a Russian military landing vessel, the Olenegorsky Gornyak.
The proximity of Moscow’s military to trade ports could increase the risk to civilian vessels, warned Alexis Ellender, a commodities analyst with Kpler.
“Those operating on the shipping markets are saying they obviously don’t expect Ukraine to attack commercial shipping, but there’s a risk that installations or ships get caught in the crossfire and there’s a lot of trade that moves through Russia’s Black Sea ports,” he said. “There’s a lot of Greek ships working on these trades and while some owners are reluctant to carry Russian cargo, there’s a whole international mix there.”
Shipping forecast
The growing risk the conflict poses to busy international waterways will mean tough decisions for the shipping industry, and for traders tempted to keep buying cheap Russian oil under the terms of a $60 per barrel price cap set last year by the G7.
“You’ve still got Greek and Turkish tankers operating around that zone though, working with Russian oil within the price cap restrictions, and there were quite a few foreign-owned vessels in and around the vicinity of the drone attack in Novorossiysk,” said McKinney. “The most interesting question to come out of this is whether they will be deterred in the future if their multimillion dollar assets are now at risk from a stray missile or whatever it may be.”
The International Chamber of Shipping, which represents shipowners and operators, declined to comment on whether the latest flareups in the Black Sea would deter its members from doing business there.
But, for Ustenko, Western companies should already be realizing there can be no more business as usual with Russia.
“From a legal and moral perspective, it’s completely unjustifiable for these vessels to continue to deliver Russian oil,” he said. “Now that’s supported from the economic point of view as well since the risk is extremely high. Under these circumstances, the prices of insurance are going to jump significantly, making these deliveries unprofitable. Your vessel and your crew is going to be under huge risk.”
“The big companies selling insurance, doing financing, are they prepared to continue this kind of work when they see these pictures coming from the Black Sea?” Ustenko asked. “This is the right moment for even those still trying to close their eyes and pretend nothing has really happened for them to realize — no way.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered a morose speech in Moscow’s Red Square that lasted barely 10 minutes, during which he doubled down on his justification for the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“A real war has once again been unleashed on our motherland,” he said in the speech during annual celebrations marking Russia’s World War II victory. “Western elites talk about their exceptionalism, dividing people and provoking bloody conflicts, sowing hatred, Russophobia and aggressive nationalism, destroying traditional family values.”
For nearly eight decades, Moscow’s annual Victory Day parade has been not just a memorial to the 27 million Soviet citizens who died fighting Nazi Germany in World War II, but also a carefully curated show of Russia’s strength.
This year, however, May 9 celebrations across the country were canceled or cut short, and the usual procession of uniformed troops and heavy weaponry in the capital appeared a shadow of what it was before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In previous years, a host of foreign dignitaries have traveled to Moscow for the festivities. But this time, only the leaders of seven other former Soviet republics made the journey — representing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia.
While the increasingly isolated Putin pledged that his troops would ultimately succeed in Ukraine, the military hardware on show suggested its armed forces are scraping the barrel for equipment.
Instead of a long line of advanced battle tanks rumbling through the streets toward the Kremlin as in previous years, the procession was led by one single, Soviet-era T-34 tank — the kind used in action against the Nazis on the Eastern Front.
Aside from a few dozen armored personnel carriers, heavy tactical vehicles used by Chechen forces and long-range anti-aircraft systems, the bulk of Russia’s once-feared arsenal was nowhere to be seen — likely in action in eastern Ukraine. Or lying wrecked on the battlefield.
“There was lots of hardware that looks tank-adjacent, but isn’t officially a tank,” one Moscow resident watching the parade told POLITICO on condition of anonymity, given strict laws targeting anyone accused of discrediting the armed forces.
Across the border, a barrage of Russian rockets rained down on Kyiv overnight, with air defenses repelling an estimated 15 missiles. Ukraine commemorated the end of World War II the day before, on May 8, aligning with Western Europe for the first time.
Meanwhile, the part of Russia’s celebrations organizers say honors those who fell in the fight against fascism almost 80 years ago — the march of the so-called Immortal Regiment, where Russians hold pictures of their loved ones who died — was canceled.
In a country where hundreds of thousands of young men are fighting Putin’s bloody war, talk of casualties is becoming more sensitive day to day.
Soyuz MS-23 will transport Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin, Sergei Prokopyev and NASA’s Frank Rubio back to Earth later this year.
Russia has launched an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft on a rescue mission to return two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose trip back to Earth has been hampered after their original space vehicle was damaged by a mini meteorite while parked at the International Space Station (ISS).
The three arrived at the ISS in September 2022 onboard the MS-22 spacecraft and were originally to stay about six months until the end of March. But the MS-22 began to leak coolant in December after an apparent micro-meteorite punctured an external radiator.
The same thing appeared to happen again earlier this month, this time on a docked Russian cargo ship. Camera views showed a small hole in each spacecraft.
The uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft lifted off at 7:24pm ET on a two-day journey to the space station to replace the MS-22 that experienced a coolant system leak in December 2022. Read more.. https://t.co/xG17Qs7q7npic.twitter.com/970Cle2yK6
MS-23, which took off on Friday, was initially scheduled to launch in mid-March with two cosmonauts and an astronaut on board who would take over from Rubio, Petelin and Prokopyev at the space station. But without the replacement crew on board MS-23, the two Russians and the US crew member will now continue working at the ISS until September.
Officials had determined that it was too risky to bring the three back in their damaged Soyuz MS-22 next month as originally planned. With no coolant, the cabin temperature would spike during the trip back to Earth, potentially damaging computers and other equipment, and exposing the suited-up crew to excessive heat.
NASA said in a statement that the damaged Soyuz MS-22 is scheduled to undock from the ISS in late March and return to Earth “for an uncrewed parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan, and post-flight analysis by Roscosmos” – Russia’s space agency.
After delivering people to the space station, capsules stay attached to the orbiting research lab throughout the duration of missions, in case of any emergencies and to eventually ferry their crews home to Earth.
In addition to the three crew awaiting the arrival of MS-23, there are also four others currently on the ISS after arriving on a SpaceX Dragon capsule last October as part of the Crew-5 mission.
They are scheduled to be joined next week by members of the Crew-6 mission – two US nationals, an Emirati and a Russian – who will also arrive on board a SpaceX capsule expected to launch on Monday from Florida. After a few days of overlap, Crew-5 will then return to Earth.
Saturday’s contest is, after all, Sabalenka’s first singles title match at a Grand Slam tournament. Rybakina is more familiar with this stage: She won Wimbledon a little more than six months ago.
“That’s OK, to feel little bit nervous. It’s a big tournament, big final,” Sabalenka said. “If you’re going to start trying to do something about that, it’s going to become bigger, you know?”
She is seeded No. 5; Rybakina is No. 22. Sabalenka is a 24-year-old from Belarus; Rybakina is a 23-year-old who was born in Moscow and began representing Kazakhstan in 2018 when that country offered to fund her tennis career.
“For me, this time, I would say it was a bit easier, compared to Wimbledon, when I was playing for the first time (in a major) quarters, semis, final,” said Rybakina, the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to beat three past Grand Slam champions during one edition at Melbourne Park.
That run includes victories over three-time Slam winner and Iga Swiatek, 2012-13 Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and 2017 French Open champ Jelena Ostapenko, along with Danielle Collins, the runner-up at Melbourne a year ago.
Both Rybakina and Sabalenka are among the most powerful players on tour, using big serves and groundstrokes to overwhelm opponents. It’s a style that evokes the way the Williams sisters went about winning when they began to transform the sport — and rather different from the way the current No. 1, Iga Swiatek, and her predecessor, the retired Ash Barty, went about things.
“As a matchup, I mean, it’s going to be a lot of mistakes, a lot of winners, I’m sure about that, from both sides, because there is going to be a lot of pressure,” said Stefano Vukov, Rybakina’s coach. “I think who serves well tomorrow goes through. That’s my feeling.”
Both finalists are indeed capable of terrific serving, which was not always the case for Sabalenka.
She has won a tournament-high 89% of her service games, holding in 49 of 55, meaning she has been broken an average of just once per match. It’s a significant development for someone who struggled mightily with double-faulting last year, accumulating nearly 400 over the course of the season, including more than 20 in some matches.
But Sabalenka reworked the mechanics on her serve during a five-day session less than a month before the U.S. Open, where she got to the semifinals. Something else Sabalenka has improved that has made her a better player: the way she manages her mindset during a match.
Instead of “screaming after some bad points or some errors” the way she used to, Sabalenka said she now tries to “hold myself, stay calm, just think about the next point. … Just less negative emotions.”
Rybakina rarely lets so much as the slightest trace of emotion show, even when she clinched the championship at the All England Club.
Both tend to seek to put an end to points with quick strikes from the baseline.
Sabalenka has managed to keep the ledger tilted quite a bit in her favor, accumulating 196 winners (32.7 per match) and 136 unforced errors (22.7 per match). Rybakina’s numbers are more even, averaging 26.3 winners and 24.8 unforced errors.
This will be their fourth head-to-head meeting, and Sabalenka is 3-0 so far, winning each in three sets, although they haven’t played each other since Wimbledon in 2021.
Since then, Sabalenka’s coach, Anton Dubrov observed, “Aryna lost (her) serve. Then she found the serve. Meanwhile, Rybakina won a Slam. They both kind of came here from different directions. So I would say … all previous matches don’t matter at all. It’s going to be something really new.”
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Kazakhstan was, at its height, the second-largest Bitcoin mining nation on earth. Then, within a year, it capitulated. While mainstream news commentators were quick to pick through the reasons for why Kazakh authorities turned against Bitcoin mining operations, the consequence this had on the greening of the network went unreported.
But because Kazakhstan is fuelled 87.6% by fossil fuel, less mining there means a higher clean energy mix for the Bitcoin network.
How much higher?
That’s what I asked myself. And the answer I found was surprising.Source
But what has not been widely reported is that by January 2022 (the last time Cambridge University updated its Bitcoin mining map), it had already fallen to 13.2% of global hash rate.
The regulated curtailment of mining. Bitcoin mining can now only legally occur at the off-peak hours of midnight to 8:00 a.m. and on weekends: a reduction from 168 mining hours per week to only 64 mining hours per week.
Running some calculations, even at the most bullish upper threshold, Kazakhstan now represents at best 6.4% of global hash rate.
So, what does this mean for Bitcoin’s clean energy mix?
It makes a pretty significant difference, as you can see. The exodus from Kazakhstan flipped the network to become a majority clean-energy user. I ran a simulation on my energy source model with Kazakhstan still at 18.3% of global hash rate. Here’s what that would have looked like: majority fossil fuel use.
Because Kazakhstan uses so much coal (a much heavier greenhouse-gas emitter than natural gas) the difference to emissions is even more significant. At 18.3% of total hash rate, Bitcoin emissions would’ve been 36 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent C(MTCO2e). But at current levels, emissions are only 32.4 MtCO2e. That’s a 10% reduction in emissions.
Ten percent emission reduction is significant. There are few industries in the world that have achieved this within a year. And if there were, you would likely have heard all about it.
An important sidenote: Have you ever seen a Bitcoin mining unit with its own internal combustion engine? Neither have I. Bitcoin mining, like electric vehicles (EVs), uses electricity as its power source. As such, if an EV can claim to be zero emissions, then so can Bitcoin mining. So, when we talk about emission, we are talking about the indirect emissions caused by the component of electricity that was generated using fossil fuels.
In summary: The Bitcoin network keeps tracking in the right direction, but you have to dig to find this out.
And some final thoughts on where we are heading:
According to my model, the Bitcoin network uses 4.7% more clean energy now than it did even just a year ago. The factors that have led to this are:
Kazakhstan is moving forward with regulation that will further stifle its bitcoin mining industry.
The country’s federal parliamentary body has completed secondary approval of a bill “On Digital Assets in the Republic of Kazakhstan.” With a third approval, the legislation will introduce new licensing requirements for bitcoin miners based on their facility ownership and operational structure. It would also require that miners purchase their electricity from the energy provider Korem at market rates.
Previously, specific reporting and tax requirements were implemented, including registration of names, locations and quarterly reports to the government. These occurred as a result of the major influx of mining amidst energy shortages and protests, all while bitcoin miners fled China as a response to the government’s banning of bitcoin.
Kazakhstan’s close proximity to China and previously highly favorable energy access led to the large amounts of hash rate migrating to the country. Afterwards, Kazakhstan went as far as seizing up to $200 million in mining equipment who did not comply with regulation, and the country continues to try and absorb the benefits of the influx in bitcoin mining using legislation like this most recently approved bill.
Bitcoin Magazine previously reported on regulation in Kazakhstan, citing a report from the Russian media outlet Tass. In the report, Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva, a member of the Committee on Economic Reform and Regional Development of the Majilis (Kazakhstan’s federal parliamentary body) detailed the government’s intentions, describing how, “Kazakhstan was used as a raw material appendage of the blockchain industry. [Through] bills, we oblige miners to license in Kazakhstan, that is, to create legal entities and become full-fledged subjects of taxation.”
