Randy Bregman
Kazakhstan is the largest country in Central Asia and the ninth largest in the world. In area, it is bigger than all of Western Europe. It is transcontinental, being part of both Europe and Asia and has shared borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Geographically, it is landlocked.
Kazakhstan's population is only 16.4 million people and thus has a low population density. Nevertheless, it is the dominant country in Central Asia based a successful effort by the government to develop its economy around extensive hydrocarbon and other raw material resources.
Sixty-three percent of the population is Kazakh, 24% is Russian and the balance mostly other Turkic and Central Asian peoples. The official language is Kazakh, though Russian has equal authority and is the most common language in business and in daily life. There is freedom of religion. About 2/3 of the people consider themselves Muslim, the rest mostly Christian.
Historically, the Kazakh people developed from nomadic tribes of Scythian and Turkic origin. Kazakhstan became part of the Russian Empire in the mid-19th Century and then part of the Soviet Union after the Civil War. On December 16, 1991, it declared itself an independent country. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the General Secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, became President of Kazakhstan, a post he still holds.
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