I was in Kazakhstan recently. I am Muslim, religious, have beard etc... I had interview with nice КНБ (http://www.knb.kz/) agent right after customs. It was about 1 minute after which I was free to go. Nothing like experience described here.
I'm white, not religious, had a car spray painted with maltese crosses and puerile jokes.
We stopped and chatted for a few minutes on the border from Russia to Kaz, and they let us go on their way. No in-depth search, no bribes, no nothing. Oh, and they take their border security seriously - they just don't do security theatre.
