in the kazar language, astana means capital. injust in the kazar language, astana means capital.years this city has risen from the empty steppes. these showpiece buildings are monuments to the commodities. now kaza khsta n monuments to the commodities. now kazakhstan is determined to diversify. you get quite a view from the boardroom of astana's new financial centre. the ceo is aiming to create a financial hub in central asia to rival singapore, hong kong, and dubai. what we are doing right now in astana financial centre, is we are trying to build all kinds of alternative vehicles, it is, to attract investment into the economy and we are building the stock market, the capital market from scratch, and we have a chance, a good chance to avoid mistakes others are doing in different areas to build financial hubs. you are sending a signal to potential investors they will get the most enormous tax breaks, i understand, a 50 year exemption from corporate and income taxes, what kind of business people do you think that will appeal to? possibly russian oligarchs, chinese oligarchs? it is

in the kazakh language, astana means capital.ars this city has risen from the empty steppes. these showpiece buildings are monuments to the country's commodity riches — oil, gas, and minerals. now kazakhstan is determined to diversify. you get quite a view from the boardroom of astana's new international financial centre. the ceo here is aiming to create a financial hub in central asia to rival singapore, hong kong and dubai. what we are doing right now in astana international financial centre, we are trying to builds all sorts of alternative vehicles, alternative instruments, to attract investment into the economy and we are building the stock market, capital market, from scratch, and we have a chance, a good chance, to avoid mistakes others were doing in other jurisdictions to build financial hubs. you're also doing something else. you're sending a signal to potential investors, they're going to get the most enormous tax breaks, as i understand it, a 50—year exemption from corporate and income taxes, what kind of business peopl

it has a size and buzz that astana lacks.wirl under this country's surface calm. this man's presence looms over pretty much everything in kazakhstan. it's notjust the statues, it's notjust the streets named after him, there is also a nazarbayev university, a nazarbayev mountain. there's even a flower that has been named after the president. and after almost three decades in power, it's pretty much impossible for kazakhs to imagine life without him. as you know, our president is the first one from our independence. that's right. almost 30 years in power. yes. and, actually, we did not see any other variants, real variants. but isn't there a part of you that would like to see something different? a much bigger part inside of me that is afraid that a new one will be much, much worse. really? yes. you're actually frightened of what change will bring? yes, i am frightened of the change. because you think kazakhstan could become unstable? you know, do you fear, you look at ukraine, yes. yes, i am really afraid of this. last month,

welcome to astana, kazakhstan. i am stephen sackur. the shiny new capital city tells it plenty about kazakhstan‘s oil wealth and its big ambition to be central asia's regional powerhouse. but all of this cannot mask a nagging question — what happens in this country when the long—serving president, nursultan naza bayev, finally leaves power? my guest today is the chairman of the kazakh senate and the de facto number two to the president, kassym—jomart tokayev. is kazakhstan tiring of 1—party rule? kassym—jomart tokayev, welcome to hardtalk. you have spoken about the subtle balance in this country between stability and democracy. do you think kazakhstan has the balance right? i am sure that kazakhstan has reached the right balance between stability and democracy. stability is a must for us. democracy is a must for us equally. at the same time, stability should not be guaranteed at the price of democracy. the reason i was saying that there is a subtle balance between both stability and democracy, we must be stable but at the same time we

in his shiny new capital, astana, the president has created an international financial centre.w have been hired to convince foreign investors it is a safe place for their money. what i can say is the absolute robust integrity of ourjudges. they would not stay here if there was not a genuine commitment to strict adherence of the rule of law. but some old soviet habits die hard. last month, paramilitary police broke up small protests, calling for the release of political prisoners. dissent in kazakhstan is dangerous. i arranged to meet one of the country's most outspoken opposition politicians. we followed him out of his city, almaty, afterfour years in prison. he prefers to talk away from prying eyes. translation: for the president, any form of dissent constitutes a crime against the state, so he removes all players from the political landscape who do not support his position and policies. nursultan nazarbayev himself has never moved on from the soviet period. the problem with one man rule is always the succession. for president nursultan nazarbayev‘s ministers, it is a sensitiv

it is a precedent in kaza khsta n astana.ond and it's also one of the major answers to the corruption, as you said, to those negative things that unfortunately do happen here from time to time and this is a realfinancial international centre and the barristers and judges also came here to have a look, to help us run the financial centre. i think it is one of the major example is how we want to handle this issue. the other, it seems to me, key pillar of your economic strategy over the next few yea rs economic strategy over the next few years is trying to exploit your geographical position, in particular your proximity to the massive growth of the chinese economy. it seems to me this is potentially dangerous for kazakhstan. it could be a one—way relationship. china has an awful lot to gain. what does kazakhstan had to gain? without kazakhstan, the concept one belt, one road, will not be feasible. 0ur concept one belt, one road, will not be feasible. our aim concept one belt, one road, will not be feasible. 0uraim is concept one

that's the motorcade going to the asta na, that's the motorcade going to the astana, the official residenceident, the motorcade from the us delegation, from president trump, they are heading there to meet with the singaporean prime minister, lee hsien loong. this is, of course, talks ahead of those historic talks that we've been talking about which ta ke that we've been talking about which take place starting 9am local time tomorrow here in singapore. of course they have got a day to prepare for it and already we've been hearing various things, including from the likes of secretary of state mike pompeo, who tweeted a little earlier, saying that they will want permanent, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation, and that is on the agenda, that is on the table in terms of talks tomorrow. of course, we are bringing you all those live events as they happen right here in singapore with myself, with a whole series of correspondents, including oui’ series of correspondents, including our asia business correspondent, karishma vaswani. a moment of reflection for us, we are both singaporeans with re

even though we a cooperating russia on syria, like through astana process, which has been a very actluallyepful process to consolidate the ceasefire and de-escalation zone even though there have been some violations, but we disagree with russia on certain issues like they support thregime and we don't. and u.s. is on strategic ally but u.s. supported ypgg-pkk terroris a big let to us.ch is >> woodruff: relations between the u.s. and turkey have been more strained since the up attempt in 200 2016. you and others in your luvernment, incng president erd wan have said western -- erd juan, is it your position today that the united states was backing the coup attempt against your president? >> we never said that u.s. supported the attempted coup in yes, the -- there's a public opinion in turkey since this terrorist and there areany others that we requested from unitedtates to extradite them are still here and they have not been extradited. it's fueling thn ati-american sentiments. >> woodruff: mr. ghoulet? yes. and also we offreicialluested from the united states to extradite him. nothing happen

he designed trump astana's kazakhstan tower.there was this three-legged stool. when trump would go into these eastern european licensing deals it would be trump the salesman, it would be michael cohen the lawyer, and it would be fotiadis the architect. and in order to get tees licensing deals and to seal it trump needed to bring an architect with him so there was something to sell and a lawyer so that they could sign the deal right there. but so this was part of trump's power play. >> that's fascinating. so to the extent trump's business deals, particularly in the former soviet union, are of interest in terms of the russia investigation, he's the third part of it. michael cohen under criminal investigation. president trump obviously the subject of this inquiry by the special counsel's office. the other guy who was in the room for all those discussions disappeared when you called him. >> he did. >> wow. >> yes. >> well, good luck finding him. >> thank you. >> if he calls you back, please call me after. >> i will. >> christina wil