DEC. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Almaty raided the HQ of London-listed Kazakh paper-maker Kagazy and accused it of being involved in various illegal dealings including tax evasion, the company said. Kagazy is currently the focus of a legal dispute in a London court. The company said that raids in Almaty may be linked to the case.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is a growing, some would say, looming, presence on Kazakhstan’s political scene.
Sidelined in 2007 after her husband, Rakhat Aliyev, fell out with her father, she has recently staged a comeback. From January 2012, Ms Nazarbayeva has been a member of Kazakhstan’s parliament and head of various committees.
Importantly for Kazakhstan-watchers, she’s also been spoken of in some circles as a potential successor to her 73-year-old father.
And that’s why comments she made on sex education in schools and the effectiveness of orphanages generated such a heated response. Kazakh media also reported that she described disabled children as “freaks” birthed from teenagers having premature sex.
“I think that from time to time children should be taken for excursions to orphanages, to institutions for disabled children, so that they see the results of a senseless, premature sex life,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted Ms Nazarbayeva as saying at a parliamentary committee.
“Show them these children, these disabled freaks, let them look at them.”
Twitter caught fire with plenty of venom directed at Ms Nazarbayeva. If Ms Nazarbayeva does have presidential ambitions she will have to learn to be more discreet.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh financier Bulat Utemuratov has agreed to buy the Kazakh government’s 80% stake in Termibank and a 16% stake in Alliance Bank, media reported. The government will still own a 51% stake in Alliance Bank and a 98% stake in BTA Bank which it has yet to find a buyer for.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italian officials are investigating whether the Kazakh government pressured energy company ENI to influence ministers in Italy into deporting the wife and daughter of fugitive opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov in May, media reported. An Italian TV interview with an anonymous ENI manager triggered the investigation.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Yet another fire has destroyed a market on the outskirts of Almaty, media reported. Reports said this was probably the sixth major fire to destroy a market in Almaty since November. Tension is increasing as the market traders, often poorer Kazakhs and migrants from China, accuse the authorities of not doing enough to protect them.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov travelled to Ethiopia, to meet with the country’s PM and visit the headquarters of the African Union, media reported. Kazakhstan has pinpointed sub-Saharan Africa as a high priority area to boost both its business and diplomatic presence.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bulat Utemuratov, a close associate of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has agreed to buy the government’s share in Temirbank and most of its stake in Alliance Bank for up to $1b, local media reported.
This is important for Mr Nazarbayev who wants to change Kazakh banking. It is made more important since Halyk Bank, owned by his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, declined to buy the government’s stake in BTA Bank in November.
Mr Utemuratov is a willing ally of Mr Nazarbayev and was an obvious purchaser of the Kazakh government’s 80% stake in Temirbank and a 16% stake in Alliance. This leaves Samruk-Kazyna with a 51% stake in Alliance Bank.
One question is why didn’t Mr Utemuratov buy the government’s entire stake in Alliance Bank? Another is, what is he going to do with the banks when he does finish the deal?
In any case, it is a step forward for Kazakh officials who plan large changes in Kazakhstan’s banking system. The government bought the stakes in the banks in January 2009 to stop them from collapsing during the global financial crisis and has been looking to cash them in for some time.
As well as selling its stakes, it wants the banks to reduce their proportions of bad debt and also to unite their private pension funds under one scheme run by the Central Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Swedish newspaper accused telecoms company TeliaSonera of making unethical deals in Kazakhstan. TeliaSonera bought telephone networks from two companies with close connections to the head of the Kazakh presidential administration, Karim Massimov, in 2012 for about $200m, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Apparently unconcerned about potential nepotism allegations, Temir Zholy, Kazakhstan’s national railway company, appointed Nurali Aliyev, the 28-year-old grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to be the CEO of TransTelecom, one of its subsidiaries. AO TransTelecom owns mobile communication infrastructure.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vadim Kuramshin, a Kazakh activist serving 12 years in prison for extortion, received an international award for human rights first given to Nelson Mandela in 1985.
The award by Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize to Kuramshin will likely irritate the Kazakh authorities. Kuramshin had been an increasingly prominent human rights lawyer in Kazakhstan until he was jailed in December 2012. Kuramshin’s supporters have said that the charges have been fabricated.
He specialised in defending prisoners’ rights. Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era prisons are notoriously dangerous. They are run by gangs and rioting is common.
The Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize was first awarded to former South African president Nelson Mandela when he was serving a life sentence in a jail in 1985.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
