Recently President Nursultan Nazarbayev presented his new book, “The Kazakhstan Way”, in Astana. The book was released in December 2006 in 10.000 copies, reported the news agency REGNUM:

“Real facts, objective analysis, and mainly, non-official details of the past events – will be of great interest for a reader”, said the organisers of the presentation. The book has nine chapters, each devoted to different stages of independent Kazakhstan, including the preparation of Development Strategy 2030, the process of adoption of the Constitution, the discovery of hydrocarbon resources, the introduction of national currency, tenge, and the creation of the bank system”. Special attention was paid to Astana in a chapter called “New capital of a new era”: “I was thinking about the transfer of the capital for a long time, already back in 1992, but I felt it would be too early to voice it as the economy was too weak”, wrote the President. The author hopes that the book will be instrumental for young people, the future leaders of Kazakhstan.

In 15 years of his presidency, Nazarbayev was quite productive and published more than ten books: “The Steel Profile of Kazakhstan”, “Kazakhstan: Without Right or Wrong”, “Market, Social and Economic Development”, “The Epicentre of the World”, etc. Not only does he write prose, but also composes music. Nazarbayev’s official website of has a special page for “creative work of the President”, where one can download chapters of his selected books and listen to the music. The insiders say that several people assisted Nazarbayev in writing his works: Lev Tarakov, a deputy director of “Liter-Media” and former “Otan” journalist, Muhtar Kul-Muhammed, a 42-year old governor, and Marat Tazhin, a new Minister for Internal Affairs (former Secretary of the Security Council). Read the full story »

Cross-posted on Global Voices

“The Government resigned… It was expected for so long that I am not even surprised…”, wrote Slavasay in Livejournal community on Kazakhstan politics.

On 8 January Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Danial Akhmetov resigned, as did the whole Government. Not much change was expected though: “In Kazakhstan’s autocratic presidential system, changes of prime minister usually signal a change of tone rather than a change of direction, and the change in prime minister will not bring about a more liberal political landscape or less interventionist economic policies”, wrote the Economist.

Ben of neweurasia has put together the responses of English-language bloggers here. For Russian-language bloggers, whose reactions you will see in this roundup, the news was an opportunity to bet on possible changes in the government, gossip about personalities and connections between them, and talk about the new Prime-Minister Karim Massimov, the first ethnic Uighur PM, born in China. Read the full story »

Update: Adam reported on the real story behind the numbers last September.

President Nazarbayev’s aim to lead Kazakhstan among the club of the world’s 50 most competitive nations has been widely reported on before, including this blog. Now, with new data being available from the World Economic Forum, the creator of the reports, it’s time again to see whether the auditors think Kazakhstan is taking the right steps.

Gazeta.kz reported some days ago:

According to the results of the last year Kazakhstan rose from the 61st to the 56th position among the world’s most competitive states, Kazakhstan Today reports citing official media.

While I am not entirely sure whether we’re all reading the same document, the one I can access online has something else to say:

Ouch.

This is a translation of Adam Kesher’s post, published on Russian-language neweurasia Kazakhstan. All links are in the original post

Most ministers have kept their portfolio in the new government.

Despite the series of scandals with improper distribution of finances, described in details by the journalists of “Vremya” newspaper, Balieva has kept her Minister of Justice position. Both Minister of Labor Karagusova, who was criticized for her lack of competence on numerous occasions, and Minister of Agriculture Esimov, who did not have any achievements in his sector, have also remained in place. All three are among the most loyal to the president officials.

Mukhamedzhanov has remained the Minister of Internal Affairs. His name – in accusing tones – has been mentioned many times last year during the trial in the case of murder of the opposition leader Sarsenbayev, mainly, in connection with violations in the course of investigation. It is assumed that he belongs to R. Aliev’s group. Yertysbaev has stayed a Minister of Information, who, on the other hand, was notable for a series of confrontations with the clan of Aliev-Nazarbayeva.

It is thought that Premier Masimov is supported by T. Kulibaev’s clan. It is interesting that when the president was introducing Masimov to the Parliament, he did not mention his ethnicity, got away from the text and started his musings about multiculturalism in Kazakhstan. Because ethnic tolerance is often used as regime’s “brand”, it is unclear why did they fail to mention that the new premier is not Kazakh. The government has once been led by a non-Kazakh Tereshenko back in the 1990s.

The deputy Prime Minister with the position of the Minister of Economy is Mussin. His ability to manage the economy has been often questioned by the observers, but the position of Vice is a key position for a PM (in the USSR, it was deemed that the 2nd secretaries of republic’s Communist parties were managing the 1st). In this regard Mussin is openly loyal to the president and he is notable for saying that the main criteria for the selection of the officials should be their faithfulness to the head of the state. Read the full story »

Update: Wikipedia user WAS 4.250 has restored the profiles of the three businessmen.

Wikipedia is a battlefield for people with different opinions and a playground for those with a debatable sense of humour. Through the website’s often superior search engine performance, it’s also quite frequently one of the main resources for stressed analysts looking for a quick and free background memo on the people they’re researching. In essence, it’s especially in the interest of important businessmen to keep their Wikipedia entries clear of defamatory content.

During the last days, we have just witnessed such a “clean-up”, this time including a top Kazakhstani corporation with quite intimate, but yet difficult to gauge, links to Kazakh politics. The usual disclaimer applies: As common with Wikipedia battles, the information in this post is subject to almost certain change, as people cleaning up often enough have others on their heels restoring and reinserting embarrassing information.* Read the full story »

Originally posted on Global Voices

A government reshuffle took place in Kazakhstan this week and – this time being no exception – occasions like this are a great chance to get a rare glimpse behind the scenes of intra-elite power-brokering Kazakh style.

According to Kazakhstan specialist Daniel Kimmage of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, real Kazakh politics takes place in the shadow – i.e. competing interest groups rather than clans or kinship networks are vying for control, and President Nursultan Nazarbayev tries to hold everything together by carefully balancing at-times conflicting interests.

8 January 2007 saw the resignation of prime minister Daniyel Akhmetov. In turn, the entire government stepped down, an act customary in Kazakhstani politics. KZBlog reported on Tuesday that the rumour had been around for a while and usually surfaced around each December of Akhmetov’s more than three year long tenure.

Trying to make sense of this far-reaching political event, the press interpreted the move as towards accomodating Western investors’ interest in the region. Daniyel Akhmetov’s name was often brought into connection with business legislation allegedly disadvantageous to foreign investors.

The English-language blogosphere, however, adds some wider context to the story. Read the full story »

German architects Behnisch won a competition to build the Guest and Club Resorts, “not only houses but built structures with an array of community functions like gym, cafés, restaurants, cinema, kindergarden and swimming pool”. On around 20 hectares, the development will be in harmony with the local landscape of rivers and trees, all on a plot of land in Budakovka near Almaty.

In the comment section of the press release on the German architecture portal Baunetz, one user is a bit sceptical of the alleged ‘harmony’ apparently evident from the drafts:

I think that it can be quite exciting for an area to have an alien spaceship land. But please, don’t pretend the project is going to be in any sort of harmony with its surroundings.

Something that kept me thinking for quite a long time is: By giving away contracts to fancy Western architects, and taking into account how these big companies work here – what do the Kazakhs end up with? Do they really get world-class architecture adorning Almaty and Astana, or will the drafts mainly be made by the hordes of student-interns?

Another commentator has the same thought:

I agree, the rendering is more reminiscent of days long past in Stuttgart and Hanover. Seems also quite like a student’s work.

Anyway, let’s hope that the commute from downtown Almaty can be done in less than two hours, taking into account traffic conditions on the congested roads.

This is a translation of Vitaly’s post on state youth policy, published on Russian-language Kazakhstan neweurasia.

The law on State Youth Policy was adopted back in 2004, but up untill now it has not been fully realised.

A co-chair of the country-wide youth organisation “The Youth Choice” (informally, the organisation was a youth wing of “Asar” party, and attracted young people into the party) Alina Hamatdinova appeals to the government to conduct the Parliamentary hearings on current issues of state youth policy. She claims that the law is “raw” and has to undergo changes. But the main concern is to bring the law into practice.

“The law, adopted by the people’s representatives and signed by the President is not being realised. I see this situation as a lack of respect to the President and to people’s will…”, expresses her dissatisfaction with the work of the local executive bodies Alina.

The Deputy of Mazhilis Dariga Nazarbayeva, agrees with Alina Khamatdinova that many provisions of the law stay on paper. Thus, Dariga Nazarbayeva offers the youth organisations to work on creation of new concept of youth policy, together with the state. Read the full story »

What is the difference between Kazakh modern kitsch and Kazakh modern art? The former sells while the latter doesn’t.

Under the Soviet Union social realism art was officially endorsed by the state. Following independence modern artists have begun to freely reflect on social and political issues in a fast changing independent country, making use of various media of modern art. Now the state supports art that seeks to find and reinforce Kazakh national identity, which for instance has led to the commissioning of a 40 million dollar Hollywood style film. It also supports projects by foreign artists, like the Khan tent in Astana by Norman Foster. Independent artists seek other ways to express their attitudes to popular culture and material values that have found their way into oil-rich Kazakhstan.

Like anywhere else, artists in Kazakhstan are sensitive to social and political changes that their country is going through, which is clear from the exhibits that are found in Almaty. “The Government’s experiments should be an object for art experiment” was the slogan for “We are the nation of Kazakhstan” (poster). Read the full story »

Zhibek Kashkeeva of Radio “Azattyq” interviewed several public figures in Kazakhstan – members of Parliament, political scientists and journalists – about their views on the outcomes of the year 2006. It was published in Russian, and I thought the English-speaking readers of this blog would be interested to read their opinions.

Member of Parliament Romin Madinov, a former leader of Agrarian party, now part of Nur-Otan, thought the year was sucessful:

- The year has been very successful as it started with the inauguration of the president. My deep conviction is that there is only one politician in our country – Nursultan Nazarbaev. We are just helping him where we can.

2006 was the year of anniversary dates for Kazakhstan. The country celebrated 15 years of independence. In December 1991 Kazakhstan, the last of all countries, announced its sovereignty. This move finalised the formation of post-soviet territory.

Historian and political scientist Kamal Burkhanov, member of the governing body of former Otan party said that this date – the anniversary of independence – showed that the country is moving in the right direction:

- The majority of scientists and experts concluded that all 15 years our country was moving, developing, making mistakes. Something was right, something was wrong, but the strategy itself was correct and the results are obvious. Read the full story »