FBRK.KZ

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during a working visit to the Karaganda Region, visited Temirtau, where he familiarised himself with the restored tram service system and the operation of Qarmet's converter shop. The Head of State was also presented with data on the enterprise's production indicators and investments.

By 1 October 2026, the population of Kazakhstan had reached 20.6 million people. Since the beginning of the year, the number of urban residents had increased by 169,000, whereas the rural population had decreased by 35,300. As a result, the overall increase amounted to 133,700 people. Behind the overall positive trend lies a notable redistribution of the population: cities are growing, while rural areas are losing residents.

A repeated utility failure has occurred in the parking garage of the EXPO Boulevard-1 residential complex in Astana. Sewage has flooded the underground car park, and cars and storage rooms are at risk of damage.

The appellate panel of the Astana city court reinstated an employee of Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev International Airport JSC to the position of head of the document management department. The court overturned the first-instance decision, recognised the dismissal as unlawful and recovered about 7 million tenge from the employer for the period of forced absence from work.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has changed its approach to enforcing the law against bribing foreign officials. According to political economist Lorenzo Crippa, the weakening of international cooperation and the possible selective application of anti-corruption norms create risks for the global anti-corruption system.

In the Irkutsk region, quarantine has been lifted in outbreaks of lumpy skin disease (LSD), which led to the seizure and destruction of farm animals from residents in the autumn. Cattle owners were paid about 76 million roubles from the reserve fund of the regional government. However, the authorities have still not disclosed the number of animals destroyed, and some restrictions will remain in place for another year.

Investigator Zarina Akhilgova from the Akmola Region has stated that her name and a forged summons in her name were used to intimidate a citizen and demand money from him, and believes that law enforcement officers are behind this.

The owners of the Pin-Up betting shop — Russian Dmitry Punin and his wife Marina Ilyina — have been placed on the international wanted list in Kazakhstan. According to the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM), they are the main organisers of an illegal online casino operating in the country.

The hacking group BUTTERFLY has claimed it has breached the database of the former Agency for Personalisation of Uzbekistan and obtained more than 27 million records about citizens. Among the allegedly obtained data are passport details, residential addresses, phone numbers and biometric photographs. There is as yet no independent confirmation of the leak.

Small and medium-sized businesses already account for 40.4% of Kazakhstan's GDP, but behind the growth in their economic share lies ambiguous dynamics: over the year, the number of active entities fell by 7.1%, and the number of employed persons — by 10.3%. Moreover, the real output of SMEs decreased by 3.6%, despite an increase in its monetary volume to 45.4 trillion tenge. It turns out that the economic weight of entrepreneurship is growing, but the quantitative indicators of the sector itself are deteriorating.