News

Kaznet users are actively discussing a video released by Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry showing what authorities described as a «drug lab» discovered in a residential building in Almaty. The footage was published after police conducted a door-to-door raid in one of the city’s districts.

What police reported

According to police, officers found marijuana plants inside an apartment. Authorities said they opened a criminal case, launched an investigation and pledged to continue what they described as a tough fight against drug trafficking.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev criticized government officials for what he described as excessive use of artificial intelligence tools, including Grok and ChatGPT, in their official work. He made the remarks Tuesday while discussing digitalization and the activities of the Financial Monitoring Agency.

Concerns over growing dependence

Tokayev said he is concerned by what he sees as a growing tendency among both officials and the public to rely too heavily on AI technologies.

«I’ve noticed that people have begun to depend on artificial intelligence. They’ve even stopped...

Social media users are discussing an unexpected reason Russians are traveling to Kazakhstan: going to the movies. The conversation was sparked by a post on Threads in which a woman said she flew to Almaty specifically to see the film «Avatar.»

A viral post fuels debate

The post quickly went viral, drawing tens of thousands of views and a flood of comments. Users expressed surprise, debated the logic of such trips and discussed what some have dubbed «cinema tourism.»

«I’m flying to Kazakhstan to see ‘Avatar.’ Kazakhs really wanted...

Police in Astana have started using an unusual patrol officer in public places — a robot dog that can be encountered in malls and railway stations.

The robot is equipped with cameras and transmits live video to the police control center. It is designed to monitor the situation, help prevent violations and respond promptly to incidents.

«The technology is used for monitoring the situation, preventing law violations, and providing prompt responses. The deployment of modern digital solutions is being carried out as part of the president’s instructions and the phased digital transformation of internal affairs bodies...

The number of AI-based startups in Kazakhstan has been growing rapidly, while venture investment in the sector has increased from $14 million to $73 million. This shift makes protecting copyright in AI-generated content increasingly important. MP Yekaterina Smyshlyaeva, who helped draft Kazakhstan’s Artificial Intelligence Law, shared her views on the matter with Kursiv.media.

Prompts as intellectual property

According to the MP, prompts — queries submitted to neural networks — are protected by copyright law and may be recognized as copyrighted works.

If a dispute arises, it is resolved in court, where the author’s contribution is assessed. There is an international...

Freedom Holding Corp. has grown from a small brokerage into a $10 billion ecosystem spanning more than 20 business lines — from banking and insurance to telecommunications and ticketing. How does the company manage technology across more than 30 different subsidiaries? Why does it need a Group CTO, and how does that role differ from a traditional CTO?

In an interview with Kursiv.media, Freedom Holding Corp.’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Renat Tukanov shared his perspective on building effective collaboration between IT and the business, saving $8 million in a single year, why negotiation skills matter more than coding, even for...

Kazakhstan plans to host several large-scale concerts featuring international stars this year, Kazakh Tourism Chairman Talgat Gazizov said at a recent government meeting.

First event set for May

The first major music event with international performers is scheduled for May. Artists expected to appear include producer and musician Timbaland, singer Nicole Scherzinger and rapper Busta Rhymes, along with other well-known acts.

More shows planned

Gazizov said at least five large concert events are planned throughout the year. Additional details on dates and venues will be announced later.

Kazakhstan’s economy is showing signs of overheating amid accelerating growth, loose fiscal policy and active consumer lending, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF noted that after growing by approximately 5% in 2023 and 2024, the country’s economy has continued to accelerate — to 6.5% in 2025 — driven by increased oil production, the expansion of quasi-fiscal operations and rapid growth in consumer lending.

At the same time, inflation remains high and the current account deficit is widening. The IMF believes that global uncertainty and a possible decline in oil prices could pose additional...

On Jan. 28, the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea sentenced the country’s former first lady, Kim Keon Hee, to one year and eight months in prison on charges of receiving lavish gifts from the controversial religious group Unification Church in exchange for favors, Yonhap reported.

The ruling also included the forfeiture of roughly $9,000. Prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison term, but the court acquitted the former first lady of charges related to a stock-price manipulation scheme and violations of the Political Funds Act, including allegations that Kim and her...

ASML Holding NV plans to eliminate roughly 1,700 positions, primarily within its technology divisions, according to Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet, Bloomberg reported. The announcement came as the Dutch tech giant reported its 13th straight year of revenue growth.

Most of the job reductions will take place in the Netherlands, with a smaller number affecting operations in the U.S. Fouquet said the cuts will largely target management roles and will amount to about 4% of ASML’s total workforce.

ASML is the world’s sole provider of Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines – massive, $250 million systems essential...

Kazakhstan’s top-ranked tennis player Elena Rybakina (World No. 5) will face American Jessica Pegula (6) in the semifinals of the Australian Open 2026. Ahead of the match, the American player pointed out the strengths of her Kazakhstani opponent.

«She has a massive serve, big groundies, cool as a cucumber, you get nothing out of her. And she’s been playing some great tennis, honestly since the end of last year. But I’m going to do my best to hopefully crack the code on her for the next round and we’ll see how it...

The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) plans to launch the country’s first exchange-traded funds linked to KASE indices, marking a milestone for Kazakhstan’s capital markets.

The move will allow retail investors to gain exposure to the domestic market using a structure similar to widely followed global benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Two funds planned

According to KASE, the funds were developed by BCC Invest and have already been registered. The exchange said trading start dates and ticker symbols will be announced later.

The first ETF will track the main...

On Jan. 27, South Korean tech firm Samsung Electronics, a Worldwide Olympic Partner since the Olympic Winter Games Nagano 1998, unveiled an exclusive edition of its Galaxy Z Flip7 smartphone for the athletes of the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, according to the company’s release.

Around 3,800 participants in the Olympics and Paralympics from 90 countries will receive the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Olympic Edition. The company aims to enhance their experiences in every moment of the event — from their stay in the Olympic...

LEGO and Crocs have teamed up to release an unconventional footwear collaboration: clogs designed to resemble oversized LEGO building blocks.

The new model debuted at Paris Fashion Week, where it was unveiled alongside rapper and performance artist Tommy Cash.

Design details

The shoes feature Crocs’ signature raised «bubble» texture with LEGO branding, a logo patch, a heel strap and a sole molded to resemble the underside of a LEGO brick.

Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Yerlan Akkezhenov said production at the Tengiz oil field is being restored in stages, with full output expected to resume within a week.

Fields restarting after fire

Speaking on the sidelines of Parliament, Akkezhenov said production at the Korolevskoye field has already been fully restored. He added that operations at Tengiz are gradually restarting following a fire and an electrical equipment failure.

Damage to critical equipment

Akkezhenov said a total of 30 transformers, most with a capacity of 110 kV, operate at the Tengiz field. Three of them were destroyed in...

The Atyrau Regional Court in Kazakhstan has denied a request to commute the sentence of 38-year-old Arman Zhetpissov, who was convicted of the brutal murder of NCOC manager Bibigul Shpanova.

According to the court’s press service, the appeals filed by Zhetpissov and his attorney were rejected, and his life sentence remains in force.

Last year, the Specialized Interdistrict Criminal Court of the Atyrau Region found Zhetpissov guilty of multiple crimes, including fraud, rape and the murder of a pregnant woman. He was also convicted of theft and the illegal seizure of a...

Kazakhstan’s top-ranked tennis player Elena Rybakina (World No. 5) reached the Australian Open 2026 semifinals after defeating the world’s second-ranked player, Poland’s Iga Świątek, 7-5, 6-1. Three years ago, Rybakina had already reached the semifinals and finals of the Australian major.

This was the third meeting between the players in a relatively short period. In November 2025, Rybakina defeated Świątek 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In December 2025, at the World Tennis Continental Cup in Shenzhen, China, the Pole avenged the loss, winning 6-3, 6-3.

Today’s match escalated quickly. After...

Kazakhstan’s Aerospace Committee of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development has revealed a tourism program for Baikonur, which includes establishing a visitor center to obtain permit passes, a space camp for children and weekend tours, Kazinform reported.

Baikonur will get its first official visitor center, located in the village of Toretam at the city’s entrance. Tourists, school students and international delegations will obtain passes to the space site and receive information on routes and excursions.

There are also plans to establish a space camp for kids in Baikonur. School students will be able to...

The deadline to nominate candidates for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is Jan. 31 at midnight CET.

All living individuals and active organizations or institutions are eligible for the prize. However, only certain categories of people are authorized to submit nominations.

Who can nominate

Eligible nominators include members of national legislatures and national governments of sovereign states, current heads of state, university professors, and past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nominations are preferably submitted through an online form.

Neither the names of nominators nor nominees may be disclosed for 50 years, in accordance with Nobel...

France plans to roll out Visio, its own video conferencing platform, across all government departments by 2027, replacing Microsoft Teams and Zoom. The move is part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on foreign software, especially from the U.S., Euronews reported.

The French government said the decision aims to strengthen control over critical digital infrastructure and improve the security and confidentiality of official communications. According to Minister for the Civil Service and State Reform David Amiel, the goal is to end the use of non-European solutions and rely on a sovereign technology platform. The government also said that...

Kazakhstani startup GoFish has reinvented fishing. Its concept allows users to fish without leaving home — a smartphone and an internet connection are enough.

The idea is that a user launches the app, connects to a camera, and controls an actual fishing rod located on the shore of a real body of water. The bobber, water and fish bites are streamed to the user’s screen.

The project currently covers one location — a lake near Almaty — where an intelligent rod equipped with cameras and remote control has been installed. In the future, the team plans...

On March 20, 2026, Kazakhstan’s international excursion train, Jibek Joly (Silk Way), is set to embark on a new tour, this time covering Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and, for the first time, Tajikistan.

The tour will run from March 20 to 25 and pass through key cities of the Great Silk Road — Turkestan, Samarkand, Dushanbe and Tashkent — starting and ending in Almaty. The package includes a train ticket, guided excursions, site entry tickets and transfers. The tour costs around $618 for adults and $500 for children under 15.

The project is timed to coincide with the Nauryz holiday, the traditional...

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said WhatsApp is not secure, making the claim in a post on the social media platform X.

According to Durov, the Meta-owned messaging service contains numerous vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. He said his team identified several potential weaknesses while analyzing WhatsApp’s encryption system.

In his post, Durov used harsh language to describe people («braindead») who believe WhatsApp remains secure in 2026.

Lawsuit against Meta adds context

Durov’s comments followed a lawsuit filed against Meta by an international group of plaintiffs, who accuse the company of misleading...

Energia Semirechya, a company with predominantly Chinese ownership that operates the Shelek-1 wind farm in the Almaty region, southern Kazakhstan, reported a net loss of 3.28 billion tenge ($7 million) in 2024.

Losses widen despite growing revenue

The wind farm was launched in 2022, but the company has failed to turn a profit in the three years since operations began. Losses widened sharply year-on-year, rising 3.6 times from 899 million tenge in 2023 to 3.28 billion tenge in 2024. In its first year of operation, the company recorded a total loss of 6.8 billion tenge.

At the...