Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: What country borders Kazakhstan?
Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia and Eastern Europe at Coordinates: . With an area of about 2,724,800 square kilometers, Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska. The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south; Russia to the north; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.
Partly because of the country's enormous semi-arid steppe, the Soviet government used Kazakhstan as its nuclear testing site. Along with near-absent pollution controls, this has contributed to an alarmingly high rate of disease in many rural areas. Kazakhstan has identified at least two major ecological disasters within its borders: the shrinking of the Aral Sea, and radioactive contamination at the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing facility (in fact a large zone south of Kourchatov (Курчатов)) and along the Chinese border.
The Kazakhstan–Russia border () is the international border between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. It is the longest continuous international border in the world, and the second longest by total length (after the Canada–United States border). It is in the same location as formerly the administrative-territorial border between the Kazakh SSR and RSFSR.
China and Kazakhstan agreed on visa-free travel in early 1992, which led to 150 to 200 Chinese citizens entering Kazakhstan each day and not returning to China. Most are believed to have simply used Kazakhstan as a transit point to Europe. Visa-free travel was terminated in 1993. The border between the two countries remained strictly controlled and highly militarised until the 1995 China–Kazakhstan Joint Declaration, following which People's Liberation Army units in the region were redeployed to the borders with Tajikistan and Afghanistan in southern Xinjiang. Starting from them, many Chinese traders began flowing into Kazakhstan. When the Kazakhstani government first opened a consulate in Ürümqi in 1997, it did not even issue visas to local people, but by 2004 it was possible for Chinese people to obtain business visas with an invitation from an organisation in Kazakhstan. Chinese citizens of Kazakh ethnicity do not require visas at all.
Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea. The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18.3 million people . Given its large land area, its population density is among the lowest, at less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq mi). The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the country's largest city.
At approximately , the borders of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come intersect in the Altai Mountains. Mongolia and Kazakhstan are kept separate by a 40km stretch of the Sino-Russian border between the Altai Republic, a federal subject of Russia, and Altay Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. To the east, Tavan Bogd Uul in Bayan-Ölgii Province, Mongolia, marks the end of the Sino-Russian border. To the west, is Kazakhstan's East Kazakhstan Province.
Following the aborted coup d'état in August, the Supreme Soviet passed the Constitutional Independence Law of Republic of Kazakhstan on December 16, 1991. Despite the swift collapse of the USSR, Kazakhstan was the last to declare its independence. The Republic of Kazakhstan is a young, independent country, however, great and significant governmental changes took place during the period. Two house parliamentary system and a new capital were established. Armed Forces, Republican Guard, Border Guards and Military-Maritime Fleet were founded not long ago. The economic system was radically transformed. 
Land boundaries Total: 13,364 kilometres (8,304mi) Border countries: the People's Republic of China (to the southeast) 1,765 kilometres (1,097mi), Kyrgyzstan (to the southeast) 1,212 kilometres (753mi), Russia (to the north) 7,644 kilometres (4,750mi), Turkmenistan (to the southwest) 413 kilometres (257mi), Uzbekistan (to the south) 2,330 kilometres (1,450mi). Coastline 0 km (0 mi); the country is landlocked, but despite this, Kazakhstan borders the Caspian Sea (1,894 km/1,176 mi). Maritime claims None (landlocked)
The border between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan originally ran either in a straight line west from the Uzbek tripoint, cutting through the Garabogazköl (Kara-Bogaz-Gol) lake and then running through the lake's narrow inlet to the Caspian Sea, or parallel to the southern shore thereby giving Kazakhstan the entire lake ("sources differ - see maps"). In 1932 Soviet authorities decided to move the border northwards so as to include the entire lake within the Turkmen SSR, aiming to boost the industrial development of Turkmenistan by enabling them to exploit the lake's rich salt deposits. The border also originally extended further east during the period 1924-30 when a then much larger Karakalpakstan was part of the Kazakh ASSR (See "Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan border").
Akmola Region (; ) is a centrally located region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Kokshetau. The national capital, Astana, is enclosed by the region, but is politically separate from Akmola Region. The region's population is 715,000; Kokshetau's is 157,000. The area is 146,200 square kilometers. It and Karaganda Region are Kazakhstan's only two regions which don't touch the country's outer borders. Akmola Region borders North Kazakhstan Region in the north, Pavlodar Region in the east, Karagandy Region in the south, and Kostanay Region in the west. Some gold and coal mining occur in the area.
It appears that there were various small changes to the border in the following decades. Many older maps show a slightly different boundary in the Kara-Kum desert, with a large triangular protrusion of Uzbek territory into what is now Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda Region ("see map right").
The State Border Service of Azerbaijan actively cooperates with the border guard agencies of neighboring states such as Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. Within the framework of this cooperation, bilateral and multilateral meetings, and conferences are held. Additionally, regular joint exercises are conducted with the border services of Russia and Kazakhstan. The cooperation with the neighboring countries have been aimed to improve the security of the airspace of Azerbaijan and the maritime space in the Caspian Sea. The State Border Service of Azerbaijan is also working together with NATO due to the same purpose.
The western two-thirds of the border are sparsely populated and traverse largely desert areas, in stark contrast to the western third which is densely populated, containing some of the largest towns in Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan. The eastern-most section is mountainous and contains a series of national parks (Sayram-Ugam National Park and Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve in Kazakhstan and Ugam-Chatkal National Park in Uzbekistan. 
Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh to Sirdaryo railway crosses through Kazakhstan briefly, a legacy of the Soviet era where infrastructure was built without regard to what were then internal boundaries.
Eighteen percent of Kazakhstan's exports (totaling $8.1 million in 2015) go to Italy - the most of any other country, including Russia and China, which each share a border with Kazakhstan. The Italian state oil company owns a 16.8 percent stake in the Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea basin, and a 29.25 percent stake in the Karachaganak gas field with the Kazakhstan state oil company KazMunayGas.
The Eastern European Plain encompasses Belarus and most of European Russia. The plain is mostly mountain-free and comprises several plateaus. Russia's northernmost regions are tundra. The Russian Tundra is located on the coastline with the Arctic and is known for its total darkness in the winter. Taiga reaches Russia's southern borders in Siberia and accounts for 60% of the country. Towards the Ural Mountains and in northern Kazakhstan, the climate is mostly temperate. Southwestern Russia and Kazakhstan are mostly steppe. The Kazakh steppe covers one-third of Kazakhstan and is the world's largest dry steppe region. Armenia is mostly mountainous and its climate is continental. The landlocked country shares no direct border with other members states. It is located in the southwestern part of Asia, occupying the northeastern part of the Armenian Plateau, and is located between the Caucasus and the Near East.
On January 2005 President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed an agreement approving an official map of the border. On May 23, 2009, the two countries placed their first boundary marker on the border between Kazakhstan’s Atyrau and Russia’s Astrakhan provinces. The demarcation is expected to take 10 to 15 years to complete.
East Kazakhstan Region (; , "Vostochno-Kazakhstanskaya oblast") is a region of Kazakhstan. It occupies the easternmost part of Kazakhstan, along both sides of the Irtysh River and Lake Zaysan. Its administrative center is Oskemen (also known as Ust-Kamenogorsk). The region borders Russia in the north and northeast and the People's Republic of China in the south and southeast. The easternmost point of the Oblast is within about 50 kilometres of the westernmost tip of Mongolia; however, Kazakhstan and Mongolia do not share a common border, the two countries being separated by a small part of Russia and China. East Kazakhstan Region borders the Kazakh regions of Pavlodar Region to the north west, Karaganda Region to the west, Almaty Region to the south, Russia's Altai Krai and Altai Republic to the north and China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the east. Population: 318,800 (as of 4/1/2011) live in the capital. The area has many Russians and Ukrainians; the capital itself has more of those two groups than Kazakhs themselves. The area is 283,300 square kilometers.
There is considerable topographical variation within Kazakhstan. The highest point is the top of the mountain Khan Tengri, on the Kyrgyz border in the Tian Shan range, with an elevation of 7,010m (23,000ft) above sea level; the lowest point is the bottom of the Karagiye depression at 132m (433ft) below sea level, in the Mangystau province east of the Caspian Sea. Most of the country lies at between 200–300m (660–980ft) above sea level, but Kazakhstan's Caspian shore includes some of the lowest elevations on Earth. The peak Khan Tengri in the Tian Shan Mountains (and on the border with Kyrgyzstan and China) is Kazakhstan highest elevation at 6,995m (22,949ft) (7,010m (23,000ft) with ice cap).
After Kazakhstan became an independent country, it negotiated a border treaty with China, which was signed in Almaty on April 26, 1994, and ratified by the President of Kazakhstan on June 15, 1995. According to the treaty, a narrow strip of hilly terrain east of Zhalanashkol which the USSR and China had contested in 1969 has become recognized as part of China.
The China–Kazakhstan border, or the Sino-Kazakhstan border (, , ) is the international border between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Kazakhstan. The border line between the two countries has been largely inherited from the border existing between the USSR and the PRC, and, earlier, between the Russian Empire and the Qing Empire; however, it has been fully demarcated only in the late 20th and early 21st century. According to the international boundary commissions that have carried out the border demarcation, the border is 1782.75 km long.
The two countries' border protection authorities carry out regular meetings, and on occasions even joint border patrols.
Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were part of the Soviet Union before its official dissolution in 1991. At the start of the 21st century, 96% of the international border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan had been determined. In 2001, after mutual agreements, the border line in only three disputed areas (Bagys, Arnasai and Nsan) remained undrawn. By September 2002, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan had fully resolved the course of their 2,440 km-long shared border.
Turkistan Region (; ), previously South Kazakhstan Region (; ), is the southernmost region of Kazakhstan. Population: Its capital is Turkistan. Other cities in South Kazakhstan include Sayram, Kentau, Arys, Shardara, Zhetisai, Saryagash, and Lenger. This region and Atyrau Region are Kazakhstan's two smallest regions; both are about 117,300 square kilometers in area. South Kazakhstan borders the neighboring country of Uzbekistan (and is very near the Uzbekistan capital Tashkent), as well as three other Kazakhstan regions: Karaganda Region (to the north), Kyzylorda Region (to the west), and Jambyl Region (to the east). The Syr Darya passes through the region, on its way to the Aral Sea. Also, an oil pipeline runs from Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan to Omsk, Russia (where it connects with a larger, Siberian pipeline) through South Kazakhstan. Oil, lead and zinc are refined in Shymkent.
Katon-Karagay National Park (Kazakh: Катонқараға́й мемлекетті́к ұлтты́қ табиғи́ паркі́) is the largest national park in Kazakhstan, located on the eastern edge of the country, in the Southern Altai Mountains. The park fills the west side of the "X" where the borders of Kazakhstan, Russia, China, and Mongolia meet. The highest peak in Siberia (Belukha Mountain, ), is on the Russian border in the Katun Range. The park is in Katonkaragay District of East Kazakhstan Region, southeast of the capital city of Astana.
The Lianyungang–Khorgas Expressway (), commonly referred to as the "Lianhuo Expressway" (), is in the People's Republic of China that connects the cities of Lianyungang, in the province of Jiangsu, and Khorgas, in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, on the border with Kazakhstan. At Khorgas, there is a border crossing into Kazakhstan. The expressway is the longest contiguous expressway in China with a single numeric designation, stretching across the country from the Yellow Sea on the east coast to the Kazakhstan border in the west. It passes through the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang.