Astana has the status of the capital city of Kazakhstan from December 10, 1997. The population of Astana is about 700,000, it is the second largest city in the country after former capital Almaty.
The main reason for moving the capital was the geographical location of the city – it is much more accessible to Russia and the chance of earthquake is much smaller. The following beautiful photos of Astana were taken by Stepanov Sl.
There was a documentary on bbc on this country today. kwani president anaaga? It was insinuated. The people on the street interviewed fear democracy because it could bring conflict. A lot of talk on who will take over. Also the place is a key player in the China one belt one road nonsense. Lots of Chinese money invested there.
Apart from having billions of barrels of easily extractable hydrocarbons, the mofos also have lots of other precious minerals. From Wikipedia:
According to some estimates,[42] Kazakhstan has the second largest uranium, chromium, lead, and zinc reserves, the third largest manganese reserves, the fifth largest copper reserves, and ranks in the top ten for coal, iron, and gold. It is also an exporter of diamonds. Perhaps most significant for economic development, Kazakhstan also currently has the 11th largest proven reserves of both petroleum and natural gas.