On 19 March 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev who had ruled Kazakhstan for 30 years announced his resignation, stating that Senate Chair Kassym-Jomart Tokayev would take over as President. The latter has been in power for almost five years in Kazakhstan and, as required by the official results of the 2022 presidential elections, is supposed to stay there for another five years. He subsequently cannot run for the presidency once again, unless, of course, the constitution is one more time amended concerning presidential term limits. The latter is a usual thing for post-Soviet Kazakhstan’s political practice. But anyway, the first five-year period of Tokayev’s stay in power is about to expire.

The time has come, therefore, to bring intermediate results of the Board Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. So, how has Kazakhstan changed in 5 years of Tokayev’s presidency, now being associated with the slogan “Together we will make New Kazakhstan a reality”? Let’s wonder how the responses to this question look when viewed from Kazakhstan and the West.

Here, for example, is what Pyotr Svoik, who has experience as a high-ranking Kazakh official, and as a member of the country’s Parliament, said to a journalist when he shared his opinion about “what awaits the New Kazakhstan program, and why that idea is doomed to........

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