Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh editor pleads guilty to extortion

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bigeldy Gabdullin, a Kazakh newspaper editor, pleaded guilty to trying to extort payments from government officials by threatening to publish negative articles about them. He was arrested in November and his trial is due to begin on Jan. 17. In the early 2000s, Mr Gabdullin had been a critic of the government but since the mid-2000s he has edited the pro-government Central Asia Monitor newspaper.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh registration rules frustrate people

ALMATY, JAN. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities imposed new migration rules which will force people to register with a local unit of the interior ministry every time they switch jobs or travel somewhere, even if it is just for a few days.

The interior ministry has said the new rules are needed to help fight terrorism but the hundreds of people queuing at centres across the country said that the new plans were just adding cost and wasting time.

Centres dealing with the flow of people trying to register under the new rules have had their opening times extended by an hour and are now also open on Sundays.

Saltanat, 25, a small business owner in Almaty said the authorities hadn’t communicated their plan properly.

“This is a very flawed law and I think that those who passed it don’t fully understand it themselves,” she said. “I have to work eight hours a day and I don’t know how am I going to register given huge lines in Public Service Centres.”

The Kazakh authorities want to clampdown on terrorism and some people welcomed the new rules.

“In my mind, authorities are attempting to solve two problems at once. Reduce the crime rate in big cities and control the unstoppable migration of people from rural areas to the cities like Almaty,” said Shaken, 49.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

House prices fall in Kazakhstan

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of new housing in Kazakhstan, considered a key economic indicator, was 3.6% lower in December 2016 than 12 months earlier, media reported quoting the economy ministry. This is still slower than the fall in older houses which analysts said was down by up to 15% in 2016. Kazakhstan’s economy has been hit by a collapse in oil prices and the fall in the value of the tenge.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kapparova quits KazInvestBank

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gahaur Kapparova, the widow of the former head of Kazatomprom, the Kazakh nuclear agency, has quit her 10% stake in KazInvestBank, less than two weeks after the Central Bank pulled its banking licence. According to data filed at the Kazakh Stock Exchange, the biggest shareholder in KazInvestBank is now Nurzhan Dzhanabekov, the bank’s CEO, with 15.3%. Ms Kapparova’s husband, Nurlan Kapparov, died from a heart attack during a business trip to China in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh President hints at changing constitution

ALMATY, JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev hinted that he would change the country’s constitution to redistribute power from the presidential office to parliament and other executives bodies.

No details were given of Mr Nazarbayev’s plans but it does appear to be an attempt to smooth the transition of power. Mr Nazarbayev has not named a successor and analysts have been left wondering just how he is going to manage the transition.

Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Mr Nazarbayev has amassed great power, tinkering with the constitution several times.

He may be aiming to reduce the power of the president to set up a system which distributes influence between roles more evenly.

This is a pattern set by some of Kazakhstan’s regional neighbours. Kyrgyzstan has boosted the power of the PM’s office, as has Georgia in the South Caucasus.

One of the favourites to succeed Mr Nazarbayev is his eldest daughter Dariga.

Other high-ranking Kazakhs touted as potential future leaders include Imangali Tasmagambetov, a deputy prime minister and Timur Kulibayev, Mr Nazarbayev’s son-in- law and the husband of Dinara Nazarbayeva.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Uranium traders see better prices in 2017 after Kazatomprom signals move

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a rough sort of five years for the uranium traders and for the globe’s biggest producers.

At the top of this pile is Kazakhstan which has relentlessly pursued a market-grabbing agenda. It now controls over 40% of the world’s uranium production. Now, though, as reported on page 9, it appears to have signalled that it wants a higher price for its unprocessed uranium product, more often called yellowcake.

By holding back 3% of the world’s production, Kazakhstan’s pushed prices for uranium up by 10%.

And traders are cheering. Ever since a tsunami crashed into the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, the market has been supply-side heavy. The tsunami wiped out a major buyer of yellowcake. Since then prices had dropped 75% before picking up slightly at the end of this year.

The problem for the industry is that stocks of yellowcake are so high that it will take Kazatomprom showing restraint for years to allow their production cuts to really take hold on the market.

Until then, uranium traders and producers are hoping, for demand to pick up and for this they are looking to incoming US president Donald Trump.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan’s Mangistaumunaigas to keep output steady

JAN. 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mangistaumunaigas, the troubled state-owned oil producer near Zhanaozen in the west of Kazakhstan, will maintain its oil output at around 6.3m tonnes in 2017, media reported quoting CEO Bakyt Imanbaev. Mangistaumunaigas runs at a loss but the government has committed to keeping it open and maintaining jobs to avoid a repeat of the strikes in 2011 that triggered riots and the shooting dead of at least 15 protesters by police sent into quell the violence.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh police arrest ex-economy minister

ALMATY, JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan arrested the former economy minister, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, for alleged links to a corruption scheme at the country’s state-owned Baiterek holding company.

Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Mr Bishimbayev, 36, as economy minister on Dec. 28.

He had only been in the job since May. for the previous three years he had been chairman of Baiterek holding company which administers the state’s shareholdings in various companies.

Several senior executives at Baiterek have been arrested over the past few weeks on bribe-taking allegations. The main focus is Baiterek Development, the holding company’s real estate unit.

Kazakhstan has been hit by several high-profile corruption scandals in the past year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan attends first UNSC session

JAN. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan attended its first UN Security Council meeting, a moment that Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has been working towards for years. Mr Nazarbayev wants to promote Kazakhstan and he views the 2-year UN Security Council posting as an ideal way of doing this on the international stage. Kazakhstan was represented byBarlybay Sadykov, deputy head of Kazakhstan’s UN mission.

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(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)

Kazakhstan relaxes visa rules

JAN. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan lifted visa restrictions on dozens of countries from Jan. 1 in a bid to increase tourism. Citizens of all EU states and countries belonging to the OECD can now travel to Kazakhstan without a visa for 30 days. The visa-free regime has also been extended to citizens of Malaysia, Singapore and the UAE. It had dropped visa requirements for 10 countries from July 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)