This week was marked by series of perturbations in higher echelons of the government - E. Dosayev, health minister (who actively blamed the regional officials for the infecting children with HIV), as well as “old guardsman”, akim of South Kazakhstan (who, in turn, blamed the Ministry) - were both dismissed for “omissions”. Thus, the authorities decided to leave no losers or winners, which is quite wise - taking one side or another could’ve aggravated intra-elite conflicts and protest moods. As for the officials themselves, most likely, each of them will soon rejoin the ranks of government officials. Meanwhile, a medic took the leadership in the Ministry of Health (Dosayev was a financier), South Kazakhstan is headed by former akim of Astana, whilst Astana is headed by former transport minister. New akim of Aktau was also appointed instead of stealthily retired Kokh, whose resignation was demanded by hundreds of protesters in August.

Sequel of the “Dismissal” blockbuster was about salaries in national companies. Speaking at the sitting of Security Council, Pres. Nazarbayev was outraged at salaries of top-managers - President of Kazakhtelekom has $365,000 per month and $2 million of annual bonus. He should be dismissed “immediately”, he said. Other “impudent and shameless” managers from development banks and state holdings, including “Samruk” (where T. Kulibayev, president’s son-in-law serves as vice-president), were also exposed to obstruction. President demanded to give money back - and few hours later head of Kazakhtelekom reportedly returned his bonus. There was no information on his dismissal though. The president’s indignant speech featured one rhetoric exclamation: “What kind of bonuses should I have then?” His audience did not reply, but Reuters pointed out that the president’s salary is not a subject to publicity, and the U.S. Department of Justice believes that the Kazakh leader got $60 million in “kickbacks”.

Few days before this excoriation show, the president opened the memorial to victims of the events of 1986. The memorial, cost almost $1.5 million, was erected without public discussion and without tender; it fell down at the first attempt of its opening. Among the state symbols, drawn on the memorial, there is a text of new anthem, “co-authored” by Nazarbayev. Interestingly, during the opening ceremony, the president was telling about the “herald of independence”, “justice” and “equality”, though in 1987, his opinion and rhetoric were of different kind: “rage of the youth”, “enemies of perestroika”, “nationalists”. The local administrations pay back the president’s love and open - so far only in Shymkent - Museum-Parks named after the First President.

Meanwhile, the first court sentence was passed to the residents of Bakai district - they had protected their houses from destruction in clashes with the police in May this year. Despite the fact that all victims (policemen and marshals) officially dropped their claims, both were sentenced to 2 years in prison. In another problematic district - Shanyrak - akimat turned off the electricity and water supply and create obstacles for the children from “Shanyrak” to access school. In the Karaganda region 41 miners perished after methane explosion. In the condolences the president took the side of “Mittal Steel Temirtau”, while the opposition pointed to scornful attitude to the workers in “Mittal Steel” and “Kazakhmys”, “where our citizens die in accidents most frequently”.

In foreign affairs, Kazakhstan pursues its multi-vector policy, which already took the country to illogicality - vice-minister and son-in-law of the president Rakhat Aliyev visited Cuba and the Summit of Non-Aligned, pointing out the “importance” and “interest” of this organization for our country. Reminder: the Non-Aligned Movement’s main idea is that its members do not participate in military blocs or war conflicts. Kazakhstan, on the contrary, participates in a number of military alliances and coalition forces in Iraq. Perhaps, the acquaintance with Chaves and Morales along with the idea of monarchy should ever more visualize the “worst scenario” for the USA on the eve of Nazarbayev’s visit, and persuade them to support Kazakh bid for the OSCE chairmanship.

The scandal concerning the fax from the Kazakh branch of Interpol - which caused detention of Kyrgyz MP Tekebayev keeps on evolving (the fax described Tekebayev as an extremist and drug trafficker). Kyrgyz NGOs appealed to the Kazakh president with request to assist in determining those involved in this provocation. “The Kazakh side is concealing the source of fabricated information, which became the reason for arrest of the Kyrgyz opposition leader”, they say. Meanwhile, the citizens of Kazakhstan are disputing about the meeting of former presidential candidate from the united opposition Zharmakhan Tuyakbai with Nazarbayev. Opinions about the “split”, “betrayal” etc. reflect low level of political literacy of the population - people are disappointed with the very fact of two politicians talking with each other.