Weekend Reading

First off, Laurence has a summary of Dr. Aleksandr Gelyevitch Dugin’s presention on the Eurasianism geopolitical movement.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kassymzhomart Tokaev’s remarks at The Heritage Foundation in August are worth a read.

The Washington Post calls on the US to give Uzbekistan no more chances. To me, this seems a little silly as it seems that is already the decision the executive has made. Nevertheless, one might take this as a sign that the mood in Washington is becoming more and more interested in both taking our Uzbekistan policy more seriously and making moves to further isolate Karimov’s government.

AFP reports that we can expect to see Kazakh cinema in the US, Canada, and the UK in the near future. Nomad tells the story of Mansure/Ablay Khan (played by Mexican actor Kuno Becker), who united the Kazakh clans and defeat the Jungars in the 18th century. The movie, financed by the Kazakh government, has an international cast which includes some B movie actors from the US. Nursultan Nazarbayev reportedly hated the movie, but Miramax has enough faith in it to have put $20 million behind it for distribution in the aforementioned countries.

You can find a trailer for Nomad here and photos from someone who worked on the film here. Many more photos and some discussion about the movie can be found at IMDB.

Update: Also check out these photos from Kazakhstan at Coming Anarchy. Mmmmm… horse meat.

For much more discussion on Eurasianism, go read Ben’s post on the subject.