Challenging the authority of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has run the Central Asian nation since 1989, hundreds of people have protested in several cities over the last four weeks against plans to privatize large swathes of farmland or lease them out to foreigners.

Yielding to the protests, a rare public display of discontent in the oil-rich former Soviet republic, Nazarbayev this month put on hold the reform, but warned that further rallies would not be tolerated.