Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Trump marred in property scandal with Kazakhs

OCT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Financial Times published a story connecting US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, through a series of property deals, to a Kazakh family accused of money laundering.

In the story, the FT said Mr Trump was involved in a a 2006 property deal with Trump Towers Soho in New York and a company called Bayrock, linked to Viktor Khrapunov.

Mr Khrapunov is a former mayor of Almaty, who is now exiled in Switzerland. Earlier this year, prosecutors in Kazakhstan said they wanted Mr Khrapunov sent back to Kazakhstan to face charges of money laundering. Mr Kharpunov has said he is being hounded because of his opposition to President Nurtulan Nazarbayev.

Neither Mr Trump nor Mr Khrapunov have commented on the FT story.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

High-profile trial takes place in Kazakhstan

OCT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial of a group of 29 men who attacked various targets including a police outpost and killed eight people in June started in Aktobe, in the western Mangistau region, under intense security. The men are accused of having links to radical Islam. The authorities in Kazakhstan have grown increasingly wary of radical Islam.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh President returns back to work

OCT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president returned to work after three days off because he had apparently caught a cold, his press office said. Part of Mr Nazarbayev’s image is his fitness and virility and it is rare for him to admit to taking any time off work. The cold apparently caused Mr Nazarbayev to skip a meeting of the FSU-focused CSTO group in Yerevan.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakhstan renames Gulen-led schools

OCT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is renaming a series of schools linked to the Gulenist Movement, blamed by Turkish president being behind a coup attempt earlier in the year, media reported. The movement is headed by the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen. He has denied any link to the July coup attempt. Gulen schools in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are considered some of the best and both the Kazakh and Kyrgyz governments have been resistant to closing them despite pressure fromTurkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakhs turn to credit cards

ALMATY, OCT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhs are spending more money on credit cards than ever before, new data showed, as they try to work out ways of pulling through a prolonged economic downturn.

Data from the rankings.kz website showed that the amount of credit cards in circulation in Kazakhstan had increased by 250% this year, a jump that suggests a large rise, too, in consumer debt.

Kuralai Abenova, a student in Almaty, was using her credit card to buy kit to renovate her apartment.

“It is very convenient rather than saving money. I can take a large sum of money and then pay little bits of it off regularly,” she said.

A crash in oil prices and a recession in Russia have hit Kazakhstan hard. The tenge currency has lost around 50% of its value since 2014 and inflation is rising.

Analysts have previously warned, though, that Kazakhs’ over-reliance on credit was a weakness that could undermine the economy. During the Global Economic Crisis of 2008/9, Kazakh banks were left with piles of bad debt. The risk is that similar amounts of bad debt are being accrued now.

And this loose attitude towards consumer debt is being replicated in high street shops which are encouraging shoppers to spend through cheap loans.

Saida Zhunusova, a financial consultant at the electronics store Technodom, said she had seen a large increase in the number of people using credit cards or asking directly for credit to pay for products.

“Many people cannot pay for the goods with cash and it is more convenient for them to pay only a part of the cost. Compared to 2014-2015 our sales have doubled because of loans,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh court fines Ural Oil and Gas

OCT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kazakhstan slapped a 2.1b tenge ($6.23m) fine on Ural Oil and Gas, a small energy company, for environmental damage. According to the prosecutor, the company had illegally disposed of its drilling waste at its operations in the Fedorovsky Bloc in Western Kazakhstan. State-owned Kazmunaigas (50%) and Hungary’s MOL (27.5%) are the two largest shareholders in Ural.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh electricity grid operator to pay dividend

OCT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – KEGOC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity grid operator, said it would pay a dividend of 24.93 tenge/share (7.5 cent) to its shareholders. The dividend, which measured 40% of the company’s first half net profit, was, proportionally, significantly lower than its dividend last year, when it redistributed all net profit among its shareholders.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh women’s rights leaders ambivalent on Dariga as future president

ALMATY, OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, may have been promoted to the Senate in a reshuffle last month, and is now being touted as a presidential successor, but many women appear ambivalent on supporting her candidacy.

The issue of who will succeed president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 76, as next president dominates Kazakh politics but Ms Nazarbayeva, 53, is a divisive figure and she fails to generate mass support among what should be her natural support base — women — as interviews with women’s rights advocates suggested.

Dina Smailova, who heads a group fighting domestic and sexual violence called ‘Don’t be silent’, said that while Ms Nazarbayeva had been supportive of their work, she may not be the right person to lead the country.

“I can view her candidacy as a woman who is educated, a modern woman but why not consider another candidate?” she said.

Women’s rights and domestic abuse moved into the mainstream in Kazakhstan this year after a well- known female TV presenter was badly beaten up by her husband at a petrol station outside Almaty.

According to the UN, 500 women are killed each year in Kazakhstan by their partners.

Aida Alzhanova, chair of Adam Damu charity and a former UN expert for women’s equality said Ms Nazarbayeva had not done enough to promote women’s rights.

“I didn’t know Dariga was promoting women’s rights,” she said. “Here gender inequality in politics and business is gradually moving into the domestic sphere.”

She did say, though, that she would consider supporting Ms Nazarbayeva.

“If she wins in a fair election and if she has a clear gender policy that fits with international norms and standards, then I will vote for her,” she said.

The third women’s rights leader interviewed by The Conway Bulletin said that she would support Dariga Nazarbayeva if she wanted to become president.

“I want to believe that if a woman becomes president there will be pos- itive changes in the country,” said Marianna Gurina, president of the Ulagatty Zhanuya charity, which pro- motes family values and women’s rights.

“Yes, I support her candidacy because I think she, as a woman understands women.”

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Stock market: KAZ Minerals

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Over the course of just a few months, KAZ Minerals has nearly doubled its stock price in London, reaching 267.1p by Thursday.

The company, which operates in Kazakhstan’s copper mining sector, continues to rally off the back of good production results throughout the year and timidly growing copper prices, now at 2.11/lb.

Copper prices, which have fallen sharply from the $3/lb of November 2014, had hovered at around 2.15/lb in September, before dropping back. But now the feeling is that prices are moving back up.

China, a major copper consumer, posted steady growth prospect and negative news from the US housing market indirectly bodes well for copper prices. Sluggish US economic news weakens the dollar and pushes up prices. KAZ Minerals improved its position in both production and revenues this year, mostly due to the start of the Aktogay project, which cost $2.2b to put in operation.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh President’s grandson says he bought 49% stake in Transtelecom in 2015

ALMATY, OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — After 18 months of rumours, Nurali Aliyev, grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, revealed himself to be the mystery buyer of a 49% stake in Kazakhstan’s telecoms network, Transtelecom.

The 8.9b tenge ($48m at the time) sale was agreed in May 2015, but the identity of the buyer was shielded from the public. At the time of the deal, Mr Aliyev was the deputy mayor of Astana. Kazakhstan’s state-owned railway company, Temir Zholy still holds a 51% stake in Transtelecom.

In an interview with the pro-government Tengrinews website, Mr Aliyev confirmed rumours on opposition websites that he had bought the stake.

“One of the reasons for my departure from the government service was the acquisition of a 49% stake in Transtelecom as part of the privatisation programme,” he said.

Mr Aliyev, 31, quit as deputy mayor of Astana in March this year, saying that he wanted to concentrate on his business commitments. He had held the position since Dec. 2013.

In Kazakhstan, it is fairly com- monplace for senior government members to own stakes in businesses.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)