Petr Trotsenko is a journalist in RFE/RL's Kazakh Service.
Life in the Kazakh village where what remains of the Aral Sea still supports a tiny fishing industry and the families that depend on it.
RFE/RL photo correspondent Petr Trotsenko meets the Tajiks who depend on the Syr Darya River, a waterway that was once bled nearly dry under Soviet rule and is now under strain from power stations and agriculture.
In the mountains where waterways that feed the great Syr Darya River originate, three generations of Kyrgyz beekeepers seek out the flower fields that will nourish the tens of thousands of bees that keep their family business alive.
A small village in northern Kazakhstan has become a Catholic pilgrimage site where the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace is located, the only Marian shrine in Central Asia, and an open-air monument to the victims of Stalin's deportations.
RFE/RL's Petr Trotesnko visited the Aqmola "camp of wives of traitors to the Motherland" as Kazakhstan marks May 31, the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression and Famine.
Protests for better compensation, concerns about the spread of disease from livestock burials, and fears for the future of crop-growing: the giant floods that struck Kazakhstan this spring look to be a national headache for some time.
RFE/RL photo correspondent Petr Trotsenko traveled to Kazakhstan's southeastern town of Zharkent to see how ordinary life has been impacted by a roaring trade between Beijing And Astana.
Using raptors to hunt foxes, wolves, and other small mammals has long been a traditional form of hunting among Kazakhs, and it is still practiced today as eagle hunters, known as "Berkutchi," showcase their birds of prey in a competition held in the Almaty region.
In an impoverished lakeside village in eastern Kazakhstan, opinions among the 1,500 residents on what the proposed construction of a nuclear power plant would mean for their future are split.
Hayato Matsumoto, a Japanese-Kazakh photographer, recalls life in the Soviet Union and serving as a policeman investigating violent crime, before finding a calmer life in Japan.
Protests by unemployed residents of Mangystau have spotlighted systemic problems in a province that accounts for around a quarter of Kazakhstan’s oil production. RFE/RL spent several days in the village of Zhetybai to understand the demands of an increasingly restive population.
In the steppes of Kazakhstan, there is no Internet, no stable access to electricity, and there are few people. If you spend more than a day here, it seems that "civilization" exists in another dimension, as the world here consists of mountains, the sky, and absolute silence.
In a year of turmoil, Kazakh authorities are taking zero chances with a vote that critics say raises doubts about the president’s reform program.
Many people in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, are campaigning against a project that involves reducing a lake to build a residential complex. Experts warn the project will deprive the city of a massive green zone.
The remote village of Dolmatovo is located on the banks of the Ishim River in northern Kazakhstan, just 4 kilometers from the Russian border.
The scene of deadly ethnic clashes last month in southern Kazakhstan has left Kazakhs and Dungans blaming each other for provoking the conflict. Many Dungans no longer feel safe in Kazakhstan and see their future elsewhere -- many in Russia.
Three years ago, Uzbekistan went through its first major political upheaval in decades after the death of longtime President Islam Karimov. The transition prompted debate inside and outside Uzbekistan as to whether the country was headed for a political thaw or a continuation of an autocratic regime under different leadership. Pyotr Trotsenko, a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, or Radio Azattyq, traveled through Uzbekistan in November to investigate the shifting landscape.
Water levels are falling on the Ural, the third-longest river in Europe. Despite a very snowy winter, the water level of the river did not rise at all this year. Pollution is also a problem, and a Russian-Kazakh commission has so far achieved little.
A Kazakh bicyclist innocently pedals his way into an election protest, and then detention.
Suddenly, I found myself being dragged by three SOBR officers toward a police vehicle.
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