Kaz-a-huh?

Kazakhstan (KAH-zak-stan)
Kazakhstan is a pretty large country, but sitting next to Russia and China you might not pick up on that right away. Think of it as stretching from the US East Coast to the Rocky Mountains. It rests just east of the Caspian Sea, which is east of the Black Sea and REALLY east of the Mediterranean Sea. It is also two nations north of Afganistan; it rests directly north of Iran & the Persian Gulf. Time to pull out an atlas, huh?

Historically, it was a prime thoroughfare from Europe to the Far East, through which european traders (like Marco Polo) traveled the Silk Roads to the Far East, and was the stomping grounds of Gengis Khan and his roaming nomadic hoards – the Steppes (and the nomads) are still there. During the Russian Revolution, the USSR sent many into exile into Kaz (most notably Dostoyevsky) and established the notorious Gulags in this region of Siberia (which covers the northern portion of Kaz); later, they moved many Russian citizens there in forced relocations to farm & cultivate the region, in the process displacing some 2 million Kazaks.

Now, the culture is made up of roughly 40% Kazak, 30% Russian and 30% Asian. It is an emerging major player as an energy supplier, holding the third-largest oil reserves in the world; it also has rich deposits of fossil fuels such as coal and many other minerals, and is currently being courted by both Russia and China for their growing energy needs. This is also where Russia's space program is currently located.