10.12.2011

A block away from President Nursultan Nazarbeyev’s summer residence, signs outside a small row of shops discreetly display the names of the world’s most exclusive brands – Cartier, Tiffany & Co, Van Cleef & Arpels. Uniformed doormen wait for the occasional customer, a nouveau Kazakh in a huge, gleaming SUV.

At the other end of town, trade is much livelier. In the streets around the Green Bazaar, hundreds of illegal traders squat with their wares – here a greenish-grey sheep’s head perched on a cardboard box, there a holdall stuffed with freshly picked spring onions. Young Kazakhs in tight jeans and fake Dolce & Gabanna t-shirts saunter among them in search of the bazaar’s pirate DVDs, mobile phone gadgetry and cheap clothes from China and Turkey.

Between these two extremes, the options are pretty limited.

http://silkroadintelligencer.com/2008/06/25/kazakhstan-stands-on-verge-of-a-retail-revolution/