Tag Archives: politics

Kazakhstan sacks high-level bureaucrats

JAN. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Aslan Musin as head of the government’s budget committee, completing the fall from grace of the man once dubbed the Grey Cardinal of Kazakhstan.

A few days later Mr Nazarbayev wielded his axe again, this time taking out Marat Tazhin, Secretary of State, and Ghalym Orazbaqov, the Kazakh ambassador in Moscow.

These were serious power plays by Mr Nazarbayev. He may have been looking to bolster his supporters as he decides how to deal with the thorny succession issue.

The risk for Mr Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan and investors, is that he may also have created powerful enemies.

Mr Musin’s decline has been fast. In 2012 he was the head of Mr Nazarbayev’s presidential staff and one of the most influential people in the country. Analysts discussed him as a potential presidential successor, building his power-base in the west of the country.

In September 2012, that changed when Mr Nazarbayev replaced Mr Musin with Karim Massimov, the PM. Mr Musin, who had been the head of the presidential administration for four years, was sent to head the government’s budgetary committee, a relative backwater.

Now Mr Musin has dropped out of government entirely. He was replaced by Dzhanburchin Kozy-Korpesh, who worked under Nurtai Abykayev, head of the National Security Council and an adversary of Mr Musin.

The sacking of Mr Tazhin also demonstrates the power of Mr Massimov. Mr Nazarbayev delegated the responsibilities of the Secretary of State temporarily to Mr Massimov.

Neither Mr Tazhin nor Mr Orazbaqov had strong links with Mr Musin but what comes next, and who replaces them permanently, is important.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

Kazakh president addresses the nation

JAN. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Wearing a pin-striped suit, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev delivered his annual state-of-the-nation speech in Astana to the massed ranks of favoured party officials and members of the political elite.

His speech concentrated on the economic tasks ahead for Kazakhstan including the goal of joining the world’s top 30 economies by 2050.

In the more short term, Mr Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan planned to build its first nuclear power station within four years and to bolster the hi-tech sector.

He also set a growth target of between 6% and 7% this year and inflation of between 3% and 4%.

None of this is particularly new, Mr Nazarbayev has never been short of ambition and high rhetoric. He also knows full well that it won’t be him dealing with the headache of trying to hit ambitious targets set for 2050.

Interestingly, standing alongside him as he met delegates after his speech was his eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva. Some analysts have talked of her as a potential presidential successor.

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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

Berdymukhamedov reshuffles Turkmenistan’s government

JAN. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — An autocrat and an eccentric, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov started 2014 in flamboyant manner.

First, on Jan. 6, a video surfaced on the internet of Mr Berdymukhamedov behind a DJ deck playing his favourite pop songs to an adoring crowd. He relishes the attention, adding backing vocals and a clutch of confident jiving hand movements.

A few days later Mr Berdymukhamedov got back to the more serious business of governance by sacking his gas and banking chiefs.

Since becoming president in December 2006, Mr Berdymukhamedov has earned a reputation as a shrewd single-minded and flamboyant showman.

Turkmenistan has grown rich over the past few years as Mr Berdymukhamedov expands its client list for gas. This makes the sacking of Kakageldy Abdullayev, previously head of Turkmengaz, the more significant development. He had been in the job for a year and was officially sacked for not diversifying the company fast enough. Mr Abdullayev’s replacement is the little-known Charymuhammed Hommadov. Mr Berdymukhamedov also sacked the head of the Central Bank Tuvakmammet Japarov without specifying why.

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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

Opposition politics declines in Azerbaijan

JAN. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The announcement earlier this month that Musavat, the oldest and arguably the most influential anti-government party, had left an opposition coalition triggered several analysts to conclude that opposition politics in Azerbaijan was in terminal decline.

To recap briefly, Musavat announced on Jan. 7 that it had decided to leave the opposition coalition dubbed the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) after what was considered a poor presidential election campaign in October.

Musavat didn’t specify why it had decided to leave the coalition but their partners in the uneasy alliance accused them of selling out.

The NCDF was always an ambitious project drawing in the various strands of Azerbaijan’s opposition groups from pro-Western liberals to pro-Islam reactionaries and everything in between.

Musavat may only have had 12 members of the original 129 NCDF but symbolically they were very important. Their departure is just as important.

It also comes on the back of other departures, leaving a core rump in the opposition alliance.

Camil Hasani, the chairman of the NCDF and its rather beleaguered presidential candidate in October, has pledged to continue to keep the organisation as a viable opposition group. The reality is, though, that after a poor election and with the coalition splitting, opposition politics in Azerbaijan is in poor health.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

French court says Kazakh opposition figure can be extradited

JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Provence, southern France, ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former chairman of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, can be extradited to Russia or Ukraine to face various money laundering charges.

This is a clear victory for the Kazakh authorities over the human rights lobby and they will be quietly celebrating in Astana and the Akorda, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s palace.

Ultimately the Kazakh authorities want Ablyazov extradited to Kazakhstan to face charges of funding terrorism and plotting a revolution. Shifting him from a prison in southern France to either Moscow or Kiev is, literally and figuratively, a move in the right direction for Kazakh prosecutors.

It also underlines their determination to hunt down enemies of the state.

After the collapse of BTA Bank in 2009, Ablyazov fled Kazakhstan and set himself up in London in opposition to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

In 2012, Ablyazov lost a civil case against the Kazakh government in London. The British court ordered him to pay millions in damages and sentenced him to 22 months in prison for perjury. Ablyazov fled, again, and was eventually arrested by French police in southern France in July last year.

In Russia and Ukraine, Ablyazov faces charges of money laundering . His supporters, though, say the main threat is being bounced along to Kazakhstan. They have said that because Kazakhstan had no extradition treaty with France it has had to work with prosecutors in Russia and Ukraine to propel their man east.

A final decision on Ablyazov’s extradition destination and date will be taken later this year.

(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

French court could extradite Kazakh oppositioner

JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in France ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh opposition leader, could be extradited to either Russia or Ukraine to face money laundering charges. Mr Ablyazov’s lawyers had argued that the authorities in Russia and Ukraine will simply hand him over to Kazakhstan where they said he would face an unfair trial.

(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

Uzbek president’s daughter engages in power battle

JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The embattled eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Gulnara Karimova, alleged that the son of foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov held dual Russian-Uzbek citizenship, illegal under Uzbekistan’s laws. Ms Karimova is battling to retain her power and influence in Uzbekistan.

(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

Opposition member sentenced in Azerbaijan

JAN. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Lankaran, south Azerbaijan, sentenced Yadigar Sadiqov, a political activist for the opposition Musavat party, to jail for six years for hooliganism. Sadiqov denied the allegations and described the verdict as politically motivated. Police arrested Sadiqov in June for allegedly beating a man.

(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

High-profile politician proposes marijuana crop in Kazakhstan

JAN. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a member of parliament, suggested giving pharmaceutical companies the right to harvest wild marijuana growing in southern Kazakhstan. Ms Nazarbayeva said the government had spent enough resources trying to control the marijuana growth.

(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)

Activist breaks in Uzbek president’s daughter house

JAN. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has stashed works of art belonging to the national museum in Tashkent at her home in Switzerland, an Uzbek activist who gained entry to the property said. Embroiled in a power struggle, Ms Karimova is currently in Uzbekistan.

(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)