Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh police detain hundreds before anti-government protests

ALMATY, MAY 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps betraying the authorities’ nervousness that anti- government demonstrations are gaining momentum, police in Kazakhstan detained hundreds of people ahead of planned protests against land reforms and worsening economic conditions.

The scale of the arrests showed just how much support the protests have gathered.

What started as an isolated demonstration in Atyrau, western Kazakhstan, in mid-April against proposed reforms to the land code, which would have allowed foreigners more rights, has now morphed into more general outpouring of discontent against the government.

In Almaty, police wearing black balaclavas detained people before they could reach a planned demonstration in the central square. In Astana, and other cities across the country, police detained smaller numbers of people.

Anti-government demonstrations are rare in Kazakhstan but ordinary Kazakhs, frustrated with worsening economic conditions brought on by a collapse in oil prices and a recession in Russia, have latched onto the land reform issue as a channel for their discontent. Even a pledge earlier this month by President Nursultan Nazarbayev to defer the land reforms has not quashed the protests.

Rinat, a protester in Astana, explained the protesters’ frustrations. “I do not want a change of power, a revolution or a war,” he told the Bulletin’s correspondent.

“I just want the authorities to hear public opinion, conduct fair elections so that the generation of my children can live without loans and be sure of their future.”

These complaints were echoed across the country. “It is not the issue of nationalism, separatism or about outside influences,” said Sergei, a protester in Atyrau. “It is about distrust in the administration that hasn’t done anything good for the economy for a long period of time.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Labour market in Kazakhstan shrinks by 5%

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The number of employed people in Kazakhstan fell by 5% to 3.4m, the sharpest fall in recent years, signalling just how hard the economic crisis has hit the country. Unemployment data is unreliable in Kazakhstan, as the statistics can be manipulated. The data is more evidence of the impact of the economic downturn on lives of ordinary Kazakhs. Protests have broken out across Kazakhstan over the past few weeks. These started as protests against a land reform and have now morphed into wider protests against the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Editorial: Kazakh demonstrations

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Make no mistake, the protests in Kazakhstan are no longer about land reform issues – they are almost entirely focused on ordinary Kazakhs’ frustrations with the elite and their government.

For nearly two years Kazakhs have watched as their economic outlook and livelihoods have worsened. Never mind what President Nursultan Nazarbayev says about Kazakhs never having had it so good. For ordinary Kazakhs it doesn’t feel that way.

The mass arrests last week ahead of planned protests are an indication of just how worried the authorities are over the groundswell of anti-government feelings. Mr Nazarbayev and his advisers look out of touch. They sit in their Ivory Towers while police wearing black balaclavas chase demonstrators around the streets. This doesn’t give the impression of being in control.

This year, the Kazakh authorities have clamped down on the press and forced through a snap election. Despite these heavy-handed tactics, they still don’t look fully in control.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Stock market: Nostrum Oil & Gas and KTO pipeline

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Amsterdam-based Nostrum Oil & Gas posted poor results for Q1 2016, but the company’s promising outlook encouraged investors, sending its share up by 1% when the results were published on May 25 before falling on May 26.

The share price has grown steadily since the beginning of April, as the company successfully completed maintenance work the month before.

The management is confident that new agreements and infrastructure would boost the company’s profile “We look forward to completing negotiations to open up the possibility of transporting our crude oil through the KTO pipeline, thereby further reducing our crude oil transport costs,” CEO Kai-Uwe Kessel said in a statement. The KTO pipeline is the network operated by the Kazakh pipeline company KazTransOil.

Mr Kessel also said that the company plans to ramp up production by 2.5 times to 100,000 barrels of oil per day in 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

End Game at Kazkom

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — For the past six months, Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender, has been hogging the news flow.

Every week, board members have been changed, shares were bought and sold and agreements were signed.

Now it has become clear that by the end of the year, Kenes Rakishev will seize full ownership of the bank. He has already accrued a 71% stake over the past few weeks and has proposed to buying out the remaining minority shareholders.

One of them, importantly, is Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund.

In early 2009, as the fallout of the Global Financial Crisis sank Kazakhstan’s banking sector, Samruk-Kazyna paid around $1b to boost KazKom’s capital and refinance corporate loans. The bailout resulted in Samruk-Kazyna owning a 21% stake in the bank.

Samruk-Kazyna gradually reduced its stake in the second half of 2014 and said it is now ready to sell its remaining 10.72% stake to Mr Rakishev. This will likely be the end of a saga that has seen KazKom take over the beleaguered BTA Bank and drop its founding chairman Nurzhan Subkhanberdin.

Now it’s time for Mr Rakishev, son-in-law of defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov, to be at the helm and use KazKom for his business interests.

Many, however, believe Mr Rakishev will serve the interest of the highest echelons in Astana.

In essence, this means ownership of the two largest banks in Kazakhstan – KazKom and Halyk Bank – are concentrated in the hands of people close to the top of the Kazakh elite. Mr Rakishev owns KazKom, Timur Kulibayev and his wife, Pres. Nazarbayev’s daughter, own Halyk Bank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Kazakhstan-focused company posts revenue fall

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hit by sustained low oil prices, Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 27% fall in revenues in Q1 2016, compared to the previous year. Importantly, average daily production fell by 15% compared to last year, to 38,754 barrels of oil per day.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Kazakhstan to receive loan from World Bank

MAY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Parliament ratified an agreement to receive a $1b loan from the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a cash injection that the government will use to pay for expenses in 2016. Kazakhstan’s finance ministry and the IBRD had agreed on the loan on May 11.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

IMF forecasts Kazakh economy

MAY 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, said that Kazakhstan has to embark on a series of institutional reforms and deepen regional integration to face the challenges posed by sustained low oil prices. Ms Lagarde spoke from Astana, where she met President Nursultan Nazarbayev and senior government officials. Ms Lagarde also praised the ditching of the tenge’s US dollar peg last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Kazakh minister says Tengiz expansion will be delayed

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that investment into the expansion of Tengizchevroil, the Chevron-led consortium exploiting the Tengiz oilfield in the west of the country, will be delayed until next year. Mr Bozumbayev said that costs for the so-called Future Growth Project would be $37b, up from an earlier estimate of $34b. The project has been delayed because of the low oil prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Kazakh President’s brother buys bank

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bolat Nazarbayev, brother of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, bought a 50% stake in the Ukrainian lender Eurobank. The remaining 50% of the bank is indirectly owned by Ukrainian financier Vadim Pushkarev. In 2014, Bolat Nazarbayev bought a 7.83% stake in Kazakhstan’s Bank RBK.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)