Almaty, Kazakhstan
Kazakh officials said this week that the opposition leader and presidential candidate who was found dead last month killed himself. The official investigation concluded that Zamanbek Nurkadilov shot himself twice in the chest before firing a bullet into his brain. Other candidates have also been having troubles in the run-up to the December presidential election. One candidate’s teenage daughter has been kidnapped, while another said two of his relatives were beaten unconscious. Incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former Soviet strongman who has ruled Kazakhstan since it became independent in 1991, is the undisputed favorite to win another seven-year term.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Week Unwrapped: what’s scuppering Bulgaria’s Euro dream?Podcast Plus has Syria changed, a year on from its revolution? And why are humans (mostly) monogamous?
-
Will there be peace before Christmas in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Discussions over the weekend could see a unified set of proposals from EU, UK and US to present to Moscow
-
Quiz of The Week: 6 – 12 DecemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
