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In Balkhash, another of Karaganda region's monogorods, this means reducing dependence on the Kazakhmys copper smelter that looms by the shore of the half-freshwater, half-saline lake.

Workers at its 1930s-built copper smelter in Balkhash had their salaries raised by at least 35 percent this year, with one proviso: they had to pass an exam to test whether their knowledge matched their pay grade.

This is the case, for instance, in the Caspian sea, the Aral and Balkhash lakes, the Tarim basin, the Sahara, inner Australia, the great basin of the United States and the Titicaca basin.

Two employees of the copper smelter that dominates Balkhash said they would vote for Nazarbayev.

Just before his departure, Aviation Week reported that the Russians are developing a new mobile anti-ballistic missile system on Lake Balkhash near the Sino-Soviet border.