Kazakhstan is abuzz with this week’s supposed revelations about how a government official bought an apartment in Paris for a whopping 65 million euros ($76.5 million). After initially scoffing at the reports, authorities have now begun to take an active interest.
A court in Kazakhstan has ordered the release on parole of a prominent journalist who was sentenced last October to serve six years in prison on fraud charges.
Russia is rapidly losing its traditional leverage in Kazakhstan. Not only is demographic change swiftly reducing the share of ethnic Russians in the population, but the government in Astana is promoting the Latinization of the Kazakh alphabet (see EDM, April 25) and a new and more radical generation of Kazakh nationalists is coming to the fore.
Meanwhile, “cautious optimism” about Uzbekistan and a quick lesson on Soviet history in the region; weekend reading.
The United States has unveiled criminal charges against five people accused of involvement in a bribery scheme to help British defense giant Rolls-Royce win energy-related contracts in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and other countries.
Mukhtar Dzakishev suspects he was jailed because of his opposition to the Russian takeover of a Toronto-based uranium company with connections to Bill Clinton
Although there is an international arrest warrant issued on her name, Botagoz Jardemalie, a Kazakhstani national and the right hand of Mukhtar Ablyazov, had a company in Brussels, Belgium, and repeatedly visited the country without any hindrance from Belgian authorities.
