ALMATY, March 11 (Reuters) - Chinese state-run energy firm CNPC on Thursday said it complied with applicable laws in its 2003 purchase of a stake in a Kazakh oil company after Kazakh financial police said they were examining the deal.
Fresh salvoes are being fired in a running battle between members of Kazakhstan's ruling elite and tycoons who have fallen out of favor.
Kazakhstan is redoubling efforts to get two important holdouts - the United States and Uzbekistan - to endorse an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in 2010. EurasiaNet recently sat down with Anthony Pahigian, deputy director of the US State Department's Office of European Security and Political Affairs, to get Washington's diplomatic take on the summit idea.
Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire chairman of Kazakhstan's state oil company Kazmunaigas (KMG) and the son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is coming under mounting pressure as new allegations about his past business dealings come to light.
ASTANA, March 10 (Reuters) - Kazakh financial police said on Wednesday they were conducting a preliminary investigation into allegations of corruption against President Nursultan Nazarbayev's powerful son-in-law.
Kazakhstan must loosen its grip on the media further, an OSCE official has said, even though the former Soviet state has relaxed some controls since taking over as Europe's main rights and security watchdog chief.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Even by the standards of a city that celebrates extravagance, it was a spectacular shopping spree: In just two weeks early last year, an 11-year-old boy from Azerbaijan became the owner of nine waterfront mansions.
Kazakh authorities accused former Kazatomprom Mukhtar Dzhakishev of money laundering, amid ongoing investigation into his role in alleged theft and illegal sales of uranium assets to foreign companies.
The responsibility of running the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe may be having a moderating effect on Kazakhstan, Vladimir Shkolnikov, an expert on the workings of the Vienna-based multilateral organization tells EurasiaNet. For one, officials in Astana are finding that it is not so easy to impose their own political preferences on a group that comprises 56 member states, and which requires consensus to get anything done.
As the first Muslim state to hold the one-year chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Kazakhstan is accelerating efforts to hold a summit in Astana this year, the country's ambassador to Turkey, Bagdat Amreyev, has said.
