Hello! Thank you for your comment! Do you have any thoughts about why the capacity to invest in infrastructure in Kazakhstan seemingly decreased after the collapse of the Soviet Union?
The answer is boring — massive corruption: the country has been making very good money by selling oil and gas to the West (along with some other things like uranium and coal), but most of it goes to vanity projects like building out Astana (hiring famous - and thus expensive - architects from around the world) and buying luxury real estate for the ruling elite in places like London and Dubai.
There's also the brain drain: since 1991, there's been a massive emigration to Russia of all places, which has slowed down a bit since 2022, but it's still going on — we have a negative migration balance with them. That in itself is quite telling.
