Kazakhstani theater director Bolat Atabayev discusses the totalitarian state that has existed in Kazakhstan since 1989, under Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan suffers from widespread corruption and systematic repression. Atabayev was arrested by government authorities after he supported a peaceful strike of oil workers in western Kazakhstan in 2011. Seventeen workers were killed and over 100 were injured in the demonstration. Atabayev cites countless examples of horrid violations that were not granted any review by Kazakhstani courts, and discusses the many individuals who remain imprisoned because they supported the workers.
