The definition of "Europe" is as unreliable as the word "eastern".The 'stans vary (Tajikistan is poor, Kazakhstan go-getting).
Nazarbayev permitted a relatively high degree of political activity until the emergence of a reform movement called Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, backed by several wealthy business people, in late 2001.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has led Kazakhstan as president, since independence in 1991, extending his tenure through a series of constitutional revisions and elections in which he has faced only token opposition.
Kazakhstan, a country with a large Russian minority, has strong relations with Russia, China and the United States.
In recent years, the gap between rich and poor in Kazakhstan has widened, heightening social tensions.
Thanks to energy exports, Kazakhstan is central Asia's most prosperous state, with annual economic growth averaging about 10% for much of the first decade of the new millennium.
Kazakhstan has lifted visa requirements for citizens of selected countries in a bid to lure business travellers and boost the tourism sector, but experts believe attracting foreign visitors to the country will remain a hard sell.
Despite all the options, the tourist industry in Kazakhstan is hugely under-developed.
For example, failure to register with the migration police on arrival in Kazakhstan – a procedure some travelers have to complete multiple times in different cities – can land foreigners in hot water, and create added financial burdens.
When the time came for him and his companion to leave Kazakhstan, "immigration officers found that our migration cards, tiny sheets of paper we received at the Russian-Kazakh border, were not valid," he told EurasiaNet.org.org
Foreign tourists in Kazakhstan tend to be "put off by the prices and the lack of service corresponding to them," Mariya Zeynelova, deputy director of the Naurzum nature reserve in northern Kazakhstan, lamented at a recent travel fair.
