Extraordinary
In October, after a visit to central Asia, Italy’s prime minister […] told a meeting of the Italian national retailers association that they should “all go to Kazakhstan on holiday” because “there’s a gentleman there who is my friend. Not by coincidence, he has 91% of the vote and has done extraordinary things”.
The man he was referring to was Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been accused of, among other things, rigging elections, intimidating opponents, concentrating power in the hands of his family and altering the constitution to ensure he remains in office, which he has done for the last 19 years.