Kazakhstan drafts media law to increase use of Kazakh language over Russian

Kazakhstan has announced efforts to promote the use of the Kazakh language over Russian in its media, amid growing scepticism over Moscow's influence in the country since the invasion of Ukraine. Kazakh is the official language of the former Soviet republic in central Asia, but Russian is recognised too and is widely spoken among the tightly controlled country's population of about 20 million. "The draft law on the media stipulates an increase in the share of the state language in television and radio from 50% to 70%," the culture minister, Aida Balayeva, told reporters in the capital, Astana. The legislation…