The opening ceremony was attended by the Akim of North Kazakhstan region Gauez Nurmukhambetov KFF President Adlet Barmenkulov and partners of the project The Kazakhstani head coach Stanislav Cherchesov and ex-capatain of the national team Samat Smakov also attended the event They held an open training session for young players and signed autographs “In North Kazakhstan region a lot of attention is paid to the development of football a modern football field was opened today in our regional center I want to congratulate everyone and express my gratitude to Adlet Nazarbayevich and other activities that are carried out in our republic our regional center will affect the future potential of our children the development of sports,” - said the akim Gauez Nurmukhambetov the KFF launched a program for renovation of football fields in Kazakhstan - ALAÑ The program is designed for 3 years and is supported by UEFA The main goal is to improve the quality of sports infrastructure and develop grassroots in the country “We have to focus on our children first and foremost we are engaged in the implementation of such programs the head of state has instructed to build stadiums in all regions of the republic This shows that today the state and business have paid attention to football. 1,250,000 children are engaged in football in the country We want this figure to grow at least twice The step from grassroots to professional football must be fully organized and then we will get the result,” - said the KFF President Adlet Barmenkulov Work on the renovation of the field lasted several weeks the quality of the pitch meets European standards and it is possible to hold tournaments of professional clubs A total of 20 football fields in the republic are planned to be renovated within the framework of ALAÑ project Shymkent and Zhetysu region were already renovated A court in the northern Kazakhstan city of Petropavlovsk which lies just across the border from Russia has sentenced four people to lengthy prison terms over a purported separatist plot Petropavlovsk News website reported that the court ruled on November 28 that the leader of the self-styled Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet The remaning three defendants – Yelena Boldyreva Madina Kaparova and Olga Berezhnova – were given seven-year sentences All were convicted on charges of propagating content that could undermine the state and separatism The accused were taken into custody in April, one month after they held a low-key meeting to discuss what they perceived as the questionable legitimacy of Kazakhstan’s government and the sovereignty of the nation which they derisively termed the "Republic of Kazakhstan Corporation." The event would likely have gone unnoticed had the participants not filmed the proceedings and posted it on their little-followed Vkontakte page one person at the gathering is heard to read the statement: “We men and women our independence and sovereignty from the national corporation that is ‘the Republic of Kazakhstan’ … are reviving the People’s Soviet of Workers of Petropavlovsk in the North Kazakhstan province.”  the court opined that the accused had thereby “undermined the security of the state” and “violated the integrity and unity” of Kazakhstan Investigators also said they had discovered that Zuderman had at other occasions disseminated literature calling for the separation of Petropavlovsk from Kazakhstan and the reconstitution of the defunct Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic Zuderman and his fellow defendants plan to appeal the verdict The severity of the sentence highlights the sensitivity with which Kazakhstan’s authorities regard any apparent expression of separatist intent immaterial of its broader appeal among the public Those anxieties have become especially pronounced since Russia embarked on its invasion of Ukraine which the Kremlin justifies with claims that it is protecting the rights of ethnic Russians for self-determination In August 2022, a married couple in northern Kazakhstan was sentenced to five years in prison after calling for Russia to absorb their region The Vkontakte page of the Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet is still active and contains posts described by the court as separatist The last post on the page was uploaded on March 23 Almaz Kumenov is an Almaty-based journalist Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all including the AZ National Guard and ASU Faculty as well as Tucson’s longstanding sister-city relationship with Almaty Current Kazakh Ambassador Yerzhan Ashikbayev visited ASU in 2021 and returned to Arizona in December 2023. On the most recent visit, he met with Governor Hobbs who traveled to Oman to establish Arizona’s newest State Partnership Program earlier in the year Ambassador Ashikbayev invited Governor Hobbs to visit Kazakhstan 2025 which would be the first visit by an Arizona governor in the program’s 31-year history The September delegation was tasked with identifying potential contact points in commerce and culture where the governor’s visit could advance the partnership for the benefit of the citizens of both Arizona and Kazakhstan The country’s connections with Arizona are physical as well as cultural.  Kazakhstan hopes to boost tourism, especially eco-tourism, at locations like Charyn Canyon, second only to Arizona’s Grand Canyon in scale and grandeur. Kazakhs also value their nomadic origins in the broad steppes of Central Asia, built around yurt-dwelling and animal herding. In the most recent World Nomad Games Kazakhstan dominated the medal table across sports including horseback wrestling a game of skill where players pitch sheep ankle bones In part because of their experience of Russian colonialism and Soviet-era cultural assimilation Kazakhs feel an affinity with the American Indian experience providing another point of contact with Arizona the delegation met with former Fulbright scholar (2021) Beibit Shangirbayeva and—wholly unexpected—Critical Languages Institute alumnus Andrew Horsfall (Ukrainian now stationed in Astana as an Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO) Arizona's delegation visited Ascension Cathedral in Almaty one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world.  Photo by Keith Brown / The Melikian Center created by English explorer Anthony Jenkins in 1562 It includes the first known Western European reference to what would become Kazakhstan and Arziona representatives meet with representatives from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense to discuss further collaboration as part of the State Partnership Program Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Clarence Fernandez Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved Michael Sheldon is a researcher for Bellingcat He has a background in open source research and verification on the conflict in the Donbas Aiganysh is a Bellingcat researcher from Kyrgyzstan She is particularly interested in corruption in Central Asia conspiracies in Europe and tool development Salima Almazbekova is interested in open source research and the use of maps and satellite imagery for investigations on various topics which rises in China and flows through Kazakhstan and Russia into the Arctic Sea This comparison of Planet satellite imagery between April 17 2024 shows the full extent of the flooding 2nd and 3rd Dachnaya districts submerged beneath the brown floodwaters of the widened River Ural Further south, at the Kazinsky dachas (51.132945, 51.375352) the flooding was not as dramatic as in other parts of Oral but many houses appeared partially flooded by the higher water levels Nearly all the surrounding low-lying land has been inundated by brown floodwater The slider below shows the Podgora District in more detail comparing the same Planet satellite imagery You can take a closer look at the Zarechny District below comparing Planet satellite imagery from May 4 Even in areas of Petropavl which do not appear fully submerged, the effects of the flooding are still visible. Pay attention to the changing colour of the city’s streets. The diagonal brown line seen at (54.886152, 69.133307) is Pushkin Street in the city centre but is among the most visible.The town of Atbasar in the Akmola Province is further upstream along the River Ishim about 380 kilometres south of Petropavl.The slider below compares Planet satellite imagery from April 14 flooding dozens of houses.Water levels in the River Zhabay a tributary of the Ishim to the north-west of the town 24 residential homes in Nura were underwater by April 17.The GIF image below compares Planet satellite imagery from October 9 It shows how the floodwaters advanced over nearly two weeks; as the river and lake expand Nura becomes a peninsula all but entirely cut off from other land.  Seventy-five kilometres away in the same region to the south-west lies the village of Kuylys (48.245236, 62.068342) where the Torgay and Irgiz Rivers meet.The slider below compares Planet satellite imagery between April 6 and April 12 The water levels in the Torgay River have risen substantially but the village itself was not entirely flooded.  On March 28, 24.kz reported that over 100 people had been evacuated from Korzhyn by helicopter and that the village’s livestock had died.Flooding continues across Russia and Kazakhstan where emergency services are evacuating residents of towns at risk singer Roza Alkozha embarked on the path of art and released her first album Rosa Alkozhi's songs«Men syiga tartkan oramal» «Myna omir gazhap qandai» found their place in the hearts of the people and made her the country's favorite singer Rosa Alkozha is not only the owner of a beautiful soft voice success and strong character helped her enter the big stage Rose united Kazakh traditions and new musical trends The singer treats her fans with great tenderness and respect The next evening of the song «Akmandailym» will take place on November 1 at 19.30 at the Palace of the Republic Come witness this beautiful evening of art A married couple in northern Kazakhstan have been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after calling for Russia to absorb their region a local court announced the day after Russia’s ex-president appeared to question Kazakh sovereignty who served as Russia’s president between 2008 and 2012 and is now deputy head of its security council has been the source of heated conversations in Kazakhstan this week after a post on his official Vkontakte page referred to the country as “artificial” and suggested Kazakh authorities had pursued “genocidal” policies in the once Slav-dominated north.  The August 2 post was deleted minutes after it was published and an advisor to Medvedev said the account had been hacked.  Few Kazakhs who follow Medvedev’s extreme online ravings – typically raining hatred on Kyiv and the West – were convinced by that explanation.  Nor was it out of sync with generally hostile rhetoric aimed at Kazakhstan from prominent Russian public figures incensed by Nur-Sultan’s fence-sitting vis-à-vis Russia’s war in Ukraine.  there was no official Kazakh response.  But it is notable that a judge at the Petropavl city court felt compelled to give a briefing the following day on a case the court had decided in May when it found the 49-year-old man and 43-year-old woman guilty of calling for integration with next-door Russia Kazakhstan’s government is proud of its record of preserving harmony in a vast country where around 30 percent of the population are non-Kazakhs.  That reputation has been badly damaged by interethnic conflicts in recent years but there have been no major clashes between majority Kazakhs and ethnic Russians who constitute the country’s largest minority at around a fifth of the population.   the jail sentences doled out in cases of separatism and inciting ethnic hatred are an important tool at the government’s disposal The state prosecutor said in May that over 20 people had been convicted on incitement charges since the beginning of 2019.  Rights activists indicate that the wording of such articles allows for broad prosecutorial scope and uneven judicial application The Petropavl couple might have gotten off with a lesser punishment if their alleged call to separatism had not been made “using telecommunications networks,” a clause that stipulates a minimum five-year sentence According to the court’s press service the case rested on a conversation the couple had with a man on ChatRoulette a website that describes itself as “a platform for meeting random people.” These chats are private, although a purported recording of the December conversation in which the man appears to be questioning the pair’s separatist sentiment has been facing charges since May of sowing ethnic hatred for calling on social media to “give over to Russia” several Kazakh cities. The maximum sentence for that crime is seven years in prison The post that briefly appeared on Medvedev’s Vkontakte page on August 2 noted the predominance of Slavs in northern Kazakhstan prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union and criticized “initiatives…that could be considered as genocidal to Russians,” a reference to Kazakh government programs that have incentivized ethnic Kazakhs moving into the region.  “We don’t intend to close our eyes to that There won’t be order there until Russians arrive,” the missive concluded opinion in Russia was divided over whether Medvedev was indeed the author.  Socialite and media personality Ksenia Sobchak ventured that the account had probably been compromised If Medvedev were a Kazakh citizen living in Petropavl he would be unlikely to get such benefit of the doubt a city in northern Kazakhstan near the border with Russia gathered in a conference room to declare the foundation of a People’s Soviet.  The chairwoman recited a bombastically worded agenda with only scant enthusiasm the people around the table barely appeared to be listening.   another attendee delivered an invective against the history of privatization in Kazakhstan decrying the sale of collective assets to foreign investors In the video footage of her remarks posted to the Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet Vkontake page the woman’s voice is almost entirely muffled by something sounding like an air conditioner unit.   That changed when video footage of the meeting began circulating online at the end of the month The proceedings were comprised largely of dry bureaucratic matters only occasionally spiced with broadsides against Western decadence The language read out by the chair is almost identical to those of the resolution adopted at the meeting and uploaded online At first glance, the almost comically self-important verbiage feels hard to take seriously. But to some, this felt like a troublingly familiar picture. After all, the Russian-engineered separatist movements that cropped up in eastern Ukraine in 2014 were also initially spearheaded by marginal eccentrics with dewy-eyed memories of the Soviet era.  The charge against the Petropavlovsk Soviets was led by BASE a YouTube account with heavily anti-government leanings BASE framed its indignation as an attack on the inaction of the government “We have managed to establish that not one of the people in this separatist gathering has yet faced criminal or administrative charges,” a BASE member said in a video about the Petropavlovsk group “The authorities have decided not to react Just let as many people as you want declare their sovereignty.”  Authorities in Kazakhstan are typically very quick to stamp out any unsanctioned political activity and anything questioning the very legitimacy of the state is considered entirely beyond the pale.  The country’s most prominent opposition group, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, or DVK in its Russian initials, which was founded by exiled government foe Mukhtar Ablyazov, was in 2018 declared an “extremist organization” – a designation akin to a terrorist organization Any pickets mounted by that movement or groups with suspected links to it are always aggressively shut down within minutes by riot police BASE went further with its accusations in a follow-up video The Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet was identical to many similar groups existing in Russia And all of them are controlled by Russian security services but BASE offered no concrete substantiation to its allegations in this instance.  "This incident has been registered with us in the police department of the North Kazakhstan region,” the police said in a terse statement on March 30 “Investigative measures are being pursued.”  Lawmakers and other state-aligned institutions joined the fray too.   "We appeal to [Prosecutor General Berik Asylov] to investigate this matter and to adopt any legal measures, if necessary," a group of deputies from the Majilis, as the lower house of parliament is known, said in a written statement The parastatal Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, a body designed to foster interethnic harmony, came out with its stern condemnation of the Petropavlovsk group.   “We … declare that the territorial integrity of the Republic of Kazakhstan is inviolable and is guaranteed by domestic and international legislation. We regard these actions as a betrayal of the country’s interests that is undermining the constitutional foundation unity and stability of our state,” the assembly said “Such provocations are extremely irresponsible and must be severely suppressed.” In its reporting on the soi-disant Petropavlovsk Soviet news outlet Orda claimed that other such small and marginal groups exist in Kazakhstan.  “In the main, these societies tend to be composed of plumbers, cleaners, handymen, and so on. That is to say, [representatives of economically] vulnerable classes,” an Orda journalist concluded sniffily in a video report Dimash Alzhanov, a political analyst who has been active in opposition movements, saw the meddling of security services operatives behind the Petropavlovsk group. Not those of Russia, but of Kazakhstan, he said in remarks on the YouTube-based political affairs channel HyberBorei The social media accounts of the Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet only materialized a few weeks ahead of parliamentary elections that have dismayed people expecting more of an open competition The outcome of an election that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had claimed would constitute a dramatic and liberalizing reset of the system has produced another seemingly compliant legislature “There has been a lot of criticism addressed at Tokayev So how can you drown out that background noise by creating this feeling among people about threats to territorial integrity,” he said the clamor has resolved with a whimper.   In yet another video a pair of members of the Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet offered a half-apology explaining that they had not intended to declare independence from Kazakhstan itself was to the oligarchs who had captured the country through their underhanded It is not clear that the police or prosecutors are still investigating the matter And the Petropavlovsk People’s Soviet is poised to sink from public view as quickly as it appeared.  A fatal accident at a power plant in northern Kazakhstan has added to growing concerns the national energy system is falling apart On March 20 a smokestack collapsed at a power plant in the city of Petropavl with the debris falling onto a boiler room.  The body of Nataliya Chefonova, a 37-year-old employee, was discovered underneath rubble two days later The accident, which emergency services attributed to strong winds, left residential homes and government buildings in the surrounding region without proper heating overnight.  Like many of the power plants responsible for providing heat and electricity to cities throughout the former Soviet Union Petropavl TETs-2 is more than half a century old Last December the same plant witnessed another fatal accident when an operational failure put two boilers out of action and left a male employee with burns all over his body The man was taken to a hospital over the border in Omsk where doctors were unable to save him.  The sorry state of Kazakhstan’s energy infrastructure was highlighted by a regional power failure in January that affected cities across the country as well as neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan which are plugged into the same Soviet-legacy Central Asia Power System.  Although Kazakhstan did not officially acknowledge its role as initiator of the accident its state grid operator admitted that surging demand in the energy-poor south of the country was putting strain on transmission infrastructure connecting its northern and southern grids Uzbekistan’s energy ministry made no bones about the fact that it believed the chain reaction which left millions in the region without electricity for hours began in Kazakhstan, where officials increasingly blame over-consumption on a boom in cryptocurrency mining Nur-Sultan has in recent years been touting itself as a destination for renewable energy investment.  President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he wants renewables to contribute 15 percent of the national energy mix by 2030.  But even if that lofty goal were achieved – they currently account for less than 5 percent – most of the population will still depend on aging coal-powered power stations for its energy needs.  Tokayev said during a government meeting last year that up to 50 percent of the equipment in such plants was overdue for replacement while the number of operational failures at power plants rose 11 percent between 2019 and 2020 “There is a need for a large-scale technical audit of energy sources,” Tokayev said during the May 2021 meeting “We must clearly understand when the launch or disposal of power facilities Tokayev used that meeting to criticize officials for putting off a long-planned modernization of a power station in the smog-suffering financial capital which will see the facility switch from coal to gas Complicating attempts to overhaul some of the old power stations is the fact that they are now controlled by wealthy businessmen or major industrial concerns who purchased them from the state during the opaque privatizations that followed independence in 1991 Petropavl TETs-2 is controlled by Central Asian Electric Power Corporation, a firm co-owned by industrial and financial magnates Aleksandr Klebanov and Sergei Kan.  Klebanov was at the plant fielding questions from journalists the day after the accident He claimed that the smokestack that tumbled had not displayed any problems during checks and was slated for repair next year.  These types of accidents tend to be pinned on people lower down the hierarchy.  Petropavl TETs-2’s director and the power station’s chief engineer have both been jailed as part of a criminal investigation into negligence announced by prosecutors on March 22 Petropavl is an overwhelmingly ethnic-Russian city and the provincial capital of the northern Kazakhstan region The husband of the late power plant employee Chefonova also works at the plant.  Sevkazenergo, the daughter company of CAEPC, said in a statement on March 22 that the company would cover the costs of her funeral five years of her salary and school education for the couple’s only child Artyem Sochnev is a writer based in Stepnogorsk The Petropavlovsk region bears even in its name the memory of Russian tsarist rule confirm the separatist moods of a large part of its population Astana (AsiaNews) - Inquiries about the prospects for northern Kazakhstan the region with a strong ethnic Russian presence also called the Crimea or the Kazakh Donbass are multiplying in the Russian and international press Although there are no tensions on the level of south-eastern Ukraine many believe that separatism in this area is set to grow further The analogy with Crimea has an obvious historical basis: as with the Black Sea peninsula the party secretary Nikita Khruščev decided in the early 1960s to create the so-called 'Tselinnyj district' or 'Virgin Lands' into which five regions of Kazakhstan (of Kokšetau to be transferred to the territory of the Russian Soviet republic Rsfsr in a plan to redistribute territories 'from above' The chairman of the council of the Kazakh republic Kssr was opposed to the initiative and succeeded in stopping it paying for it personally with the loss of his office North Kazakhstan today partly coincides with the Petropavlovsk region which also bears in its name the memory of Russian tsarist rule confirm the separatist mood of a large part of its population a matter of 'oppression of the minority' or the imposition of the Kazakh language as in the case of Ukrainian in the Donbass this process being much less impetuous than in Ukraine or other former Soviet countries which envisages Russia's leading role over all peoples historically linked to it The Russians in northern Kazakhstan only watch Russian television programmes communicate only in Russian on social networks many even have Russian passports generously granted by Moscow along with their Kazakh passports and for this they can even receive a pension from Russia Nostalgia for the Soviet times is widespread along with anger at the backward economic conditions of the region which has a lower standard of living than the rest of Kazakhstan as a whole going from colonisers to 'marginalised' Currentime correspondent Timur Ermašev toured the towns and villages of northern Kazakhstan trying to understand how deep these feelings are rooted among the inhabitants The investigation was prompted by the outcry of a video released last April from Petropavlovsk in which some 20 people calling themselves the 'Workers' People's Council' declared their intention to secede from Kazakhstan on the basis of the 1937 Soviet constitution granting 'independence autonomy and sovereignty to the Soviet peoples' The General Prosecutor's Office of Kazakhstan immediately opened proceedings to verify this group were convicted on charges of 'inciting division and separatism in society' The two had also expressed their support for a possible 'special military operation' by Moscow in northern Kazakhstan stating that 'Uralsk has always been a Russian city' and launching a cry of distress to Russia: 'Take us with you The region's capital Petropavlovsk is in fact the only city in the country where Kazakhs are not the majority ethnic group representing only 33% of the inhabitants against 53% Russians although so far there have been no problems with coexistence There is even a unique monument in which the figures of the two peoples' greatest poets the Kremlin's propaganda continues to advocate the 'Russian-ness' of these areas and the need to support the 'nationalism' of the compatriots and the defence of their cultural and political identity in tones very similar to those used for years against the Donbass the question "Are you waiting for the Russian world there?" and everyone enthusiastically replies "Yes Many Russians had come in Khruščev's time and now they claim the 'Russian virginity' of this vast territory lying between the Siberian tundra and the Kazakh steppes Subscribe to Asia News updates or change your preferences Several districts of the northern Kazakh city of Petropavlovsk were completely flooded and cordoned off on Monday rose 23 cm (9 inches) in the four hours to 6 a.m Floods were also inundating homes in the Tomsk region in the southwestern part of Siberia which is the regional administrative centre were under water on Monday and 84 people were evacuated although nearly 12,000 people have returned to their homes the governor of Russia's Kurgan region on Sunday urged people to evacuate flooded areas immediately saying rain was exacerbating the already tough situation there and the coming night would be difficult The water level in the Tobol river has risen by 25 cm over the past two hours to 5.32 m (17.45 feet) governor Vadim Shumkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app "You need to leave while the sun is up," he appealed to local people The situation can worsen sharply at night and you might have not enough time to react." The Interfax news agency also cited the government of the Tyumen region to the northeast of Kurgan as saying that two villages there were being evacuated as the authorities feared the area could be threatened by the Ishim river The TASS news agency cited Russia's emergencies ministry as saying more than 14,000 houses across Russia have been flooded more than 1,000 houses in the city of Petropavlovsk have been flooded more than 111,000 people have been evacuated in the country since the beginning of the floods Almost 30 years into independence of Kazakhstan the government has still not decided to give Kazakh names to Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar located in the north of the country The reasons and possible repercussions of renaming the cities are discussed in the article by political scientist Alimana Zhanmukanova (Kazakhstan) exclusively for the analytical platform CABAR.asia Exceptions to this are Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar that neither have new Kazakh names nor Kazakh sounding versions of their original names The question is why did not the Kazakh government change the names of all the major cities in one wave right after gaining the independence To find an answer to this question it is important to study the ethnic Russian minority in Kazakhstan and Russian-Kazakh relationship and Russia’s foreign policy towards the post-Soviet states Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar: History and attempts to rename them The history of the two cities starts in the XVIII century when during the reign of Elizabeth of Russia it was recognized that in order to strengthen the Russian Empire’s Southern borders on the newly attained territories there was an urgent need to start building a new Ishim line Fortification fortresses were built and protected by Russian Empire’s militant groups – Cossacks Modern ethnic Russians residing in North Kazakhstan can trace back their roots to the Cossacks many of whom stayed and started families on this territory Pavlodar, one of the oldest cities in Northern Kazakhstan, was founded in 1720 as Koryakovsky fort The outpost was built in order to gain a foothold in new lands and protect the Cossacks from the attacks of the Dzungars Although the settlement was first called Koryakovsky fort it was later expanded and given the name of the city of Pavlodar the city of Pavlodar is named after the son of Emperor Alexander II Petropavlovsk was founded in 1752 as a military fortress of St Peter and was established on the site of the Kyzyl-Zhar tract The city was called after the holy apostles Peter and Paul who were regarded as patrons of the military Peter was considered to be the keeper of the keys to paradise which can be interpreted as Petropavlovsk being the gate to greater conquests to the South usually from the Russian speaking residents The most notable attempt happened in Petropavlovsk in 2010 when representatives of the government started the discussion and put forward the idea of renaming the city Usually very passive and apolitical residents of the city unexpectedly launched a full-fledged campaign against the renaming The residents mobilized very quickly and assertively using yellow ribbons as a sign of protest to express their desires and demands to allow Petropavlovsk to keep its name In Pavlodar the question of changing the name comes up frequently but never gets to the stage when the government or the public are serious in their pursuits When Astana was renamed to Nur-Sultan in 2019 it became evident that the government is capable of renaming a major city without any consultations with the residents and can do it quite swiftly such a scenario is unlikely in the case of Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar: possible problems touch upon not only the democratic aspects and the opinion of the civil society Here we are also talking about the risks regarding relations with the Russian Federation and the ethnic Russian minority in Kazakhstan which may also indicate threats to the territorial integrity of the country Factor of ethnic composition and identity It is important to note that at the dawn of Kazakhstan’s independence the country was highly diverse in terms of its ethnic composition. Despite the fact that Kazakhs were made the titular nationality, they remained a minority with only 39,6 percent, while ethnic Russians constituted 37,8 percent of the whole population This shaky ethnic composition of the newly independent state created the preconditions for conflict and strained relations between the two ethnic groups It is especially the case since most of ethnic Russians are concentrated in the north and east of Kazakhstan making up the majority in the cities neighboring Russia The fragile political situation in the early 1990s and the sudden Kazakhization prompted many ethnic Russians to question their citizenship and contemplate about an autonomy from the newly formed Kazakh state Several attempts were made in the strive to separate from Kazakhstan and join Russia or create their own Russian-centric autonomous territory Despite the organized movements and strong narrative the country’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev and the ruling government managed to suppress and weaken separatist sentiments in Kazakhstan the government approached its nation building policy by adopting the idea of multiculturalism and unity of all under shared identity of Kazakhstanis handling ethnic questions with sensitivity the Russian issue is far from being resolved for Kazakhstan Even though there is a constant outflow of ethnic Russians from the country a significant share of them still resides in the cities on the Russian border in the city of Petropavlovsk ethnic Russians make up 59,28 percent while Kazakhs make up only 29,99 percent; in Pavlodar This break of percentage is similar in other borderline northern and eastern cities such as Kostanay the major cities on the referred territories The proponents of this idea argue that the assignment of Kazakh names to these cities will put an end to disputes and discussions between Kazakhs and Russians about the true ownership of these lands It is apparent that that the preservation of cities bearing the Russian names Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar in Kazakhstan gives the ethnic Russians a sense of belonging and understanding of their place in the country from the standpoint of power and ethnic ownership Erasing that will drastically impact relations between the ethnic Russian minority and the Kazakh government The Russian Federation has not only a physical proximity to Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar but also great influence and significant presence in the daily life of the residents. The Russian media, including Runet, are very popular among the population of both cities due to poor quality and almost lack of Kazakh media content Russian television was the only source of entertainment and remains so to this day for many it belongs to the South Ural railway of the Russian Railways and subordinates to Moscow It is unclear whether the Kazakh railways will take control over the station it is important to note that most of the ethnic Russians reside in the borderline cities like Petropavlovsk and Pavlodar which creates the situation where separatism and threat to territorial integrity is possible the response to rename the cities will depend on existing relations with the current Kazakh government But in case change of power in Kazakhstan or its foreign policy one cannot discount the possibility of a repetition [1] Zhanmukanova The Perception of North Kazakhstan’s Russian Community on Post-2014 Nation-Building [2] Ibid notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter Some media reports says massive pile-up of 95 vehicles in Kazakhstan has left 20 injured after drivers go too fast in treacherous conditions The Times of Central Asia reports that KazAvtoZhol the government agency that oversees the country’s highways said on Telegram that the horror crash happened on the Astana-Petropavl highway on January 3 after escorts from the police and KazAvtoZhol had organized the movement of traffic toward the country’s capital Astana.  Traffic had reportedly been restricted for all vehicles early in the morning after warnings of deteriorating weather The cars piled into each other amid heavy snowfall poor visibility and ice.  Some of the drivers and passengers were reported to have been suffering from hypothermia Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry said on Telegram that it also helped with rescues and evacuations and that a total of 152 people and 68 units of equipment were involved in the operations taken to a staging area and provided with hot meals Another 10 people were hospitalized.    Iranian official proposes to launch an air route connecting Dushanbe and Shiraz ADB support for food security to reach US$40 billion by 2030 President orders more potatoes to be planted in Rasht and Tojikobod districts What consequences do Tajik citizens face for traveling to and working in occupied regions of Ukraine Head of Taliban’s diplomatic mission in Doha insists UN seat be given to IEA’s representative A powerful dust storm expected to hit Tajikistan in the coming days Russia’s prosecutor general asked to investigate into legality of housing subsidies for “new citizens of Russia” Dushanbe to host the first-ever international health and beauty exhibition A miniature exhibition dedicated to epic poem written by Firdavsi opens in Dushanbe US President Trump plans a military parade on his birthday it is planned to finish the renovated of football fields at the Central Stadium in Ayagoz (Abay region) the reserve stadium “Vostok” in Ust-Kamenogorsk (East Kazakhstan region) and at the stadium “Dostyk” in Aksu (Pavlodar region). The ALAŇ project is also aimed at improving the quality of sports infrastructure and developing grassroots in the country we should focus on grassroots and our children This is the first step where football starts Professional football will never develop without grassroots level We have divided and made 5-17 aged programs there is also a separate program for women Now all these programs are actively developing already today about 1,250,000 children in the country are engaged in football We want to bring it up to 2,500,000 children because the health of the nation is very important to us,”  said the KFF president Adlet Barmenkulov The project will renovate 20 football fields in the country between 2023 and 2025. Last year a new field was opened at the Dynamo stadium in Petropavl “Not all cities have football fields of this quality for children Thanks to the support of the leadership of the North-Kazakhstan region and the Kazakhstan Football Federation such a wonderful field was opened here,” the former captain of the national football team Samat Smakov said at the opening ceremony in Petropavl.