The child weans itself from Mother Russia

Country datafile

President: Nursultan Nazarbayev
Prime Minister: Nurlan Balgimbayev (1997)
Independence: December 16 1991
Population (12/98): 16.8 million
Location/size: Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic, and China/1,049,200 square miles (slightly less than four times the size of Texas)
Languages: Kazak official language spoken by over 40% of population, Russian (language of inter-ethnic communication) spoken by two-thirds of population and used in everyday business
Ethnic groups: Kazak (41.9%); Russian (37%); Ukrainian (5.2%);