DEC. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Overall inflation in Kazakhstan in 2013 slowed to 4.8% compared to 6% in 2012, the national statistics agency said. This is below the Central Bank’s forecast of between 6-8%. In 2012, the Kazakh Central Bank cut its key interest rate to a historic low of 5.5% to try and bolster falling prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
DEC. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest bank by assets, and businessman Kenes Rakishev agreed to buy a majority stake in the beleaguered BTA Bank. The deal is a relief for the government which has been looking to offload its 97.3% stake in BTA Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
DEC. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swiss authorities dropped a money laundering case against Timur Kulibayev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law and a potential successor, and his close business associate Arvind Tiku without pressing charges, media reported. The Swiss authorities opened the case in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera sacked another top executive from its Eurasian division which has been linked to murky deals in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The allegations of dubious deals bring into focus the links between the Uzbek and Kazakh elites and Western companies’ desire to tap into markets.
Media reported that Veysel Aral, head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit, was fired after only 10 months in the job.
He took over in February from Tero Kivisaari who had been head of the unit in 2007 when it made a $350m payment to a Gibraltar-registered company linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, in return for a 3G licence.
Swedish media released details of that deal a couple of years ago triggering an internal investigation that has led to several high-level resignations and sackings at TeliaSonera.
Before Mr Aral took over from Mr Kivisaari as head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit he had been in charge of KCell, TeliaSonera’s Kazakhstan subsidiary. Earlier this month a Swedish newspaper also raised questions over a $200m deal in 2012 by KCell to buy telecoms infrastructure from companies owned by Karim Massimov, head of Kazakhstan’s presidential administration.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
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)