IF THE STANS CAN DO IT...:

Kazakhs set to vote for stability (Ian MacWilliam, 12/02/05, BBC News)

Kazakhstan goes to the polls on Sunday to elect a president, in a distinctly upbeat mood.

While the other Central Asian republics struggle with repressive presidents and sluggish economies, this vast country - the ninth largest in the world, by area - is on a roll. [...]

To the north, the new Kazakh capital, Astana, is rising from the steppe, a post-modernist showcase for a country which is proudly emerging at last from the shadow of its domineering Soviet-era master, Russia.

Recent elections in other post-Soviet republics - Georgia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan's neighbour, Kyrgyzstan - have triggered popular protests which drove presidents from power. But few people expect such an outcome in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan certainly shares some of those countries' problems - a corrupt elite, sharp divisions between rich and poor, and an opaque electoral system which favours the incumbent. But unlike Kazakhstan, those three republics were all still deep in post-Soviet torpor.

On the streets of Almaty, most people seem to think their country is on the right track.