The sounds of construction are ubiquitous in Almaty. Pounding jackhammers, whining saws, and lumbering bulldozers are at work on almost every block of this green, mountain-rimmed Central Asian city. This breakneck development takes place alongside the expensive bistros and Mercedes dealerships that cater to a new generation reveling in the riches of recently discovered oil and gas reserves, giving this city—once considered a sleepy Soviet outpost—a powerfully wealthy and cosmopolitan veneer.

But all is not well in this city lauded as an economic giant in the region, a model of expedient privatization and post-Soviet development. Kazakhstan’s reality check lies only a few miles outside the city center where a growing movement of discontent among those left behind by the recent boom tells a very different story and reveals a country developing on the shaky foundations of corruption and disparity.

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