After wrapping up work and a few meetings, it’s time to do what I always do in Shymkent: slow down and enjoy the city. Nothing beats a cold kvas, a fresh samsa, and the city’s unmistakable summer heat

Опубликовал во «Власти» новую колонку. My latest piece for Vlast. vlast.kz/avtory/69520-skazi-…

This one as well

One of the best shots of Astana I’ve seen so far Credits: Aibek Yusupov

Best of luck to Ambassador Roberts as she begins her mission in Slovenia. Here in Kazakhstan, where she was born, we wish her every success in this new assignment.

Kazakhstan’s ruling Amanat party proposed to merge with a newly-formed grouping as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev continues to remodel the political system in Central Asia’s largest oil producer. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Summer is Astana’s prime time

It was a pleasure to meet with President Tokayev of Kazakhstan. We had a productive discussion on strengthening commercial ties, particularly in the critical minerals, energy sectors and aviation. We also exchanged views on advancing the Board of Peace, the forthcoming G20 meeting, and new areas of bilateral collaboration.

Back in my hometown of Shieli, Kyzylorda Region earlier this month, I stopped by the bazaar for hwe and kimchi from the same Korean women I remember from childhood. A good reminder of how deeply Koryo-saram shaped southern Kazakhstan - from rice farming to local food culture.

My Astana

gm 🫶🏻 happy to see folks larping about Kazakhstan being second Japan for nerds I can confirm. it's real and it's unhinged in under 2h you go from glacier → grand canyon → canada lakes → Shanghai skyscrapers → Swiss ski resort → steppe grassland btw, hosting a 7-day trip mid June if anyone wants to see it firsthand horse riding, hiking, eagle hunting, canyon mountain lakes dm me

Almaty 🍎

Welcome to your second home✊🏽

Thank you, Kudari Ardak and Kuda Daulet, for the wonderful evening. Great time with my in-laws here in #Kazakhstan. Laughter, love, and the sweetest songs sung together under one roof. And thank you for blessing me with my three incredible grandkids. They are my everything. So glad to be in my second home. Family is where the heart sings, and tonight, mine was full.

I've been to Kazakhstan every year for the past 3 years. Planning my fourth trip. And every time I come back, the same thing happens. I show people photos, and they say, "Wait, that's Kazakhstan?" The country is the size of all of Western Europe. 2.7 million square kilometers. Ninth largest on Earth. It has a canyon that makes you think you're staring at Arizona (Charyn Canyon runs 80 kilometers), alpine lakes that hide entire forests underwater from a 1911 earthquake (Lake Kaindy), and the Altai Mountains, whose name literally means "Golden Mountains" in Turkic. Snow leopards still live wild in these ranges. Almost nobody visits. Iceland, 26 times smaller, gets 2.5 million international tourists a year. New Zealand, 10 times smaller, gets 3.3 million. Kazakhstan? About 1 million foreign visitors booked hotel rooms in the first nine months of 2025. The headline number of 15 million "visitors" is mostly neighbors from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia crossing the border. The country is catching on, though. Their global tourism ranking jumped from 66th to 52nd in a single year. They launched a "Neo Nomad" visa in late 2024 that lets remote workers stay for up to a year. Visa-free entry for 87 countries, including the US and EU. Tourism investment climbed 38% in 2025 to around $2 billion. The Altay region in this video covers nearly a tenth of the entire country. The country as a whole averages about 8 people per square kilometer. You can drive for hours through rolling green steppe and see nothing but horses. If this place were in Europe or had a nonstop from JFK, it'd be overrun tomorrow. Right now, you can stand in genuinely world-class scenery and be the only person there. That window won't last forever.

Happy Nowruz to everyone in Kazakhstan and all who celebrate! May this new beginning bring renewal, prosperity, and peace to your homes🌷

I like how much the Kazakhstanis are into this particular color palette.