Join us for an online roundtable discussion

Referendum in Kazakhstan
Political Reset or Political Redux?

Thursday, June 9, 2022
10:00am - 11:00am (EST)
Will Kazakhstan's constitutional referendum on June 5th deliver the political reset that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is promising his citizens after the Bloody January violence, or are the reforms he touts as heralding a new, more democratic political order nothing more than a smokescreen for continued authoritarian rule?
SPEAKERS
Joanna Lillis is an Almaty-based journalist and the author of the book Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan. 
Roman Vassilenko is Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Assem Zhapisheva is a journalist and political activist from Kazakhstan, the co-founder of masa.media and the founder of Til Kespek Joq.
Aigerim Toleukhanova is an independent journalist and researcher from Kazakhstan, former adjunct lecturer at KIMEP University and an ex-digital editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kazakh service.
Moderator: Sebastien Peyrouse, PhDResearch Professor at the Central Asia Program in the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University.
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The Central Asia Program at George Washington University advances high-quality research on contemporary Central Asia through empowering local voices and international experts alike and serves as an interface for the policy, academic, diplomatic, and business communities.