ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study was to explore the techniques that the Kazakh regime – headed by its authoritarian ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev – used to maintain itself in power. This book has endeavoured to uncover the palette of the regime’s methods by analysing the ways in which it went about controlling the oil industry, an industry with which the political and economic future of Kazakhstan is inseparably intertwined. The empirical section of this study has investigated the interplay between the regime and key actors located in and around two cores: the NOC and the oil-rich areas. I focused in particular on the instances when players involved with the oil industry directly or indirectly attempted to challenge the regime’s authority in these two centres either because of their greed or grievances. I argued that it is in these moments of crisis that the regime’s maintenance techniques are most visible, and even more importantly, likely to be replaced by new methods.
