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The lost village: Western oil companies enriched Kazakhstan's power brokers — and left a community in ruins
Every few months, Alina Kusmangaliyeva faints. The 24-year-old cosmetologist once fainted in front of a client. She fell out of a chair during class when she was a college student. Another time she passed out on an airplane.
The first time it happened was an autumn day 10 years ago. That morning, 14-year-old Kusmangaliyeva walked, as she always did, to the only school in Berezovka, a village tucked into the rolling feather grass of northwestern Kazakhstan. The smell of rotten eggs hung in the ai...