Casey Michel
It's not often that Kazakhstan's backyard politicking come to the fore. It's rarer yet when such sniping is aired in English, made available to that much larger of an audience. It's political gossip at its finest – open and sharp, with accusations anted and points countered with language as colorful as the content is heavy. There's a certain guilty pleasure in it all. If this didn't carry so many denotations of human rights concerns, this could almost be fun.
Ex-finance director at arm of FTSE 100 company claims officials received holidays and cash for lucrative contracts. A subsidiary of Compass Group, the FTSE 100 catering firm, paid bribes to Kazakhstan government officials and has been reported to the Serious Fraud Office, according to allegations made public by a whistleblower.
Rakhat Aliyev, the ex-husband of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's eldest daughter, surrendered today in Austria seven years after police in his home country sought his arrest in a murder probe.
With Ukraine in continued crisis and Moscow deflating under a crippled ruble, the European Union has begun scouring for non-Russian gas. Azerbaijan, in the gas-rich southern Caspian, should present a natural replacement.
EVERY couple of years a now familiar cycle begins at Buckingham Palace when officials try to rehabilitate Prince Andrew's battered image.
The Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc of former Soviet states, expanded to four nations Friday when Armenia formally joined, a day after the union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan began. The Russian-dominated bloc has been politically controversial and its early days are being overshadowed by the sharp deterioration of Russia's economy in recent months.
