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There was a small foreign press corps in Almaty, but I soon realised I was the only western journalist in Astana, though there were reporters for the Russian and Chinese media.  This was confirmed at the first press conference of the government’s new Central Communications Service, launched in 2012.  At first, I was a bit…

Central Asian women are great enthusiasts for personal grooming, and dedicate a lot of their time and money to looking good. Beauty salons offering manicures, pedicures, waxing and other treatments aren’t hard to find — there’s usually a Salon Krasota on most street corners. But you need to choose among the man the right one.…

Ever since I moved to Astana, I’d found myself writing more about agriculture, as the city is in the heart of Kazakhstan’s grain belt.  In fact Astana was previously called Tselinograd after the disastrous Virgin Lands campaign in the 1950s, when large parts of north Kazakhstan and other previously uncultivated land was turned over to…

People often ask where I get my ideas for articles from, as if it’s some mysterious process known only to the initiated. Usually it’s a question of reading everything relevant — in my case all the news, reports, social media and other material I can find about Central Asia — talking to people, keeping my…

Shortly before I turned 35 I decided I wanted to enrich my life, which during the winter in Astana had mainly been spent working or hanging round the flat eating comfort food and watching box sets.  One thing I’d wanted to be able to do for a while was to learn dressmaking so I could…

The pensions story ran right through the first half of 2013. It started as a straight economic story, as the pensions system was being overhauled. But it didn’t end there. As the winter turned into spring a rare movement of mass public discontent started gathering pace as first hundreds then thousands of Kazakhstanis mobilised against the…

For a person born and brought up on a small and densely populated island, the vast amount of empty space in Kazakhstan is hard to compute.  Globally, Kazakhstan has the third lowest density after Australia and Canada with just 16 people per square mile, compared to 413 in England.  Most of these are concentrated in…

In May I received the unwelcome news that my landlord was kicking me out. Not because I was a bad tenant or didn’t pay the rent, simply because the value of the flat had gone up and he wanted to sell it.  Kazakh rentals don’t have any of the procedures that British ones do. There…

The extreme cold of the winter months skewed Astana residents’ perceptions of the weather. When temperatures crept above -15C then above -10C during the day, it felt like spring had arrived.  Parents stood outside their buildings letting their babies — so bundled up in clothes and snowsuits that their arms and legs stuck out at…

In the years I’ve spent in Central Asia, I’ve noticed that women invest huge amounts of time and money in personal grooming.  Waxing, manicures, pedicures, eyebrow and eyelash dying are all part of the regular routine of grooming in Central Asia, along with professional hair styling and makeup for big events.  I’m talking about normal…