Several of the Stan’s such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are quite wealthy due to a high amount of natural resources such as oil and coal. Kazakhstan’s main city capital Astana is incredible. It looks like a small Shanghai or Dubai and it’s all largely because of their wealth from oil.

The country opened up a few years ago once the long-term president died and was replaced by a more progressive one. There was a moderate amount of western investment since - modernizing rail, telecom infra etc.

Also as mentioned by another commenter: Uzbekistan is more wealthy than other countries of the region; it's a major exported of things like gas, cotton, silk.

> Uzbekistan is more wealthy than other countries of the region;

Absolutely not. Uzbekistan was the Central Asian version of North Korea.

The poverty was universal, and extreme.

And yes, a change from a braindead Kim Il Sung wannabe who boiled people alive to a plain idiot plutocrat could be considered a "change" to be welcomed.

Kazakhstan is by far the wealthiest Central Asian nation.

I didn't say it's more wealthy than KZ. I was comparing to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan. (Not an expert but it seems to me UZ is well ahead those)