Olympic Flame Sets Kazakhstan Ablaze ahead of Asian Games

    By Paul Bartlett
    Almaty is bracing itself for traffic chaos. The city's main arteries will be closed January 12 as officials parade the Olympic flame through Kazakhstan's financial hub in the run up to the seventh Asian Winter Games, to be held in Astana and Almaty from January 30 to February 6.
    Almaty Akim Akhmetzhan Yesimov will meet the flame on arrival from Kuwait -- home to the Olympic Council of Asia, which oversees and organizes the games -- at 11:00 a.m. local time.
    After touring Almaty, the flame will travel across Kazakhstan and will arrive in the capital on January 30 for a grand opening ceremony. The torchbearers will be mostly young athletes, with 1,020 involved in the relay. A television crew will follow the torch on its procession around the country, documenting its daily progress.
    Even President Nursultan Nazarbayev may don his tracksuit and run with the flame, as he did with the Olympic torch when it passed through Almaty in 2008. He surely won't miss this chance to interact with his adoring public -- he's currently riding a wave of popular love after more than a quarter of the country's population signed a petition calling for a referendum to do away with pesky presidential elections until 2020, according to Eurasianet.