Hardly anybody will wonder to yet another "what a joke of a man he is" when this will fly into Nazarbayev's face. Locals are kinda accustomed to it. The man was so infuriated with Kohen's "Borat" not for it taking an insult on the nation, but him himself, personally (or so he keeps thinking) lol.
A so so dictator he is, not much of an issue he is. Ones who are the dangerous people in the country are his lieutenants: sharp guys who actually run the country, all waiting for him to finally die.
To locals, him being an unscrupulous buffoon gives much elation, as many see that they will fare much worse were he to be as sharp as leaders of neighboring gangsterlandias
He controls all law enforcement and mass media, restricts freedom of speech, prosecutes political competition, enables corruption and connections-with-benefits, and has everyone eat this crap because patriotism.
I struggle to recall a soviet era without these traits.
I didn't know. Interesting. The news coverage of Kazakhstan is bordering on nothing in my part of the world. Other than covering his resignation, I don't think I have read anything other than the renaming of Astana.
RIP, but I laugh at those who consider him a symbol of democracy or of "regime change".
He was a corrupt (he stole his campaign funds), racist nationalist.
He defined muslims as cockroaches, and depicted himself as "an unapologetic nationalist who will deport non-White immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus by ruthlessly deporting them"[0]. Even Amnesty stripped him of the prisoner of conscience status.
Had he been given the chance of governing, he would have made Russia a worse place than it is now. You can say what you want of Putin, but he's definitely not a racist.
Bonus: a nice selfie he took with his friends[1]. In Ukraine he would have been glorified.
Why would I take responsibility for something I have zero influence over?
He did just appear when Yeltsin said that he's leaving. He blatantly fakes elections: 146% support is a very telling result of one of these elections. It is a meme in Russia because when you can't do anything about it you can only laugh or cry.
His 20 years on the throne are a constant stream of murders, poisoning and jailing of people who try to do something about it, and their friends, and their families.
I'm just a normal person, I want to live a normal live with my wife and kids, I didn't choose any of that. Why do I have to risk going to jail for 15 years for mentioning that war is war, only because I was born on the wrong side of the border?
Here's another thing to blow your mind: Grobachev was the inly Russian leader in history that resigned himself quietly, and then lived his life as a normal person.
In all of Russian history.
You could argue that Medvedev did, too, but this increasingly deranged puppet is sort of back in politics now.
This man is a hero but a ‘sadomasochist’ at the same time. Why did he return to Russia after the attempt to poison him? He wanted to show he was not
afraid, I get that but was it worth it? His life is in danger again. And his public support remains relatively low, even after disclosing the whole Putin palace by the Black Sea and the extravagant spending on it, all this while the Russian people have seen a dramatic decline in quality of life.
Ukranian president played Ukranian president on TV before actually becoming him. He also used to dance topless in latex pants, and now he's symbol of a true modern wartime leader.
No, he's not a fluffy, but the tragedy is that for his first two terms he really tried to become friends with the West. He was called a traitor in Russia when allowed NATO to use our military airports to supply war in Afghanistan.
- renamed months and days of week to references to his own autobiography;
- banished dogs from the capital;
- banned lip syncing at concerts;
- banned recorded music at any public event and on television;
- built a palace of ice in the desert near the capital, so people could learn to skate;
- after quitting smoking himself, banned smoking and chewing tobacco for the entire country;
- outlawed opera, ballet, and circus because it's un-Turkmen-like;
- banned long hair and beards for men;
- banned makeup for news reporters;
- discouraged gold teeth and suggested that people should chew on bones like dogs to improve dental health;
- changed Turkmen language to rename bread (as in actual bread) and the month of April to Gurbansoltan, his mother's name.
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