The fate of a billion

The Kazakh authorities have not responded substantively to questions about the origin of the foreign accounts. In the previous issue (No. 15), “Interlocutor” spoke about the difficult political situation that is developing in Kazakhstan. The authorities, irritated by the democratic opposition, are resorting to an extreme and, as life tells us, unpromising method of counteraction - the arrest of the leaders of the influential movement “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan”. The chairman of the political council of the DCK, Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, and a member of the political council, Mukhtar Ablyazov, found themselves on the bunk because of suddenly opened criminal cases against them. But are these the right means to counter dissent if you want to look civilized in the eyes of the world community?
How much is my word of honor?
The other day, a France-Presse message was distributed through the world's news agencies under the heading “Central Asian regimes believe that they are so necessary for the world community that they can afford anything.” Closely linking the latest events in Afghanistan with the assistance that the United States provided to the Central Asian countries in the battle with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Western analysts are inclined to believe that their leaders have apparently begun to seriously believe that they can quickly and quietly resolve all domestic political problems. Let's say, overcome the opposition. And how, by what means - everything will be forgiven, everything will get away with it.
Apparently, this did not happen. Friendship, as they say, is friendship, and principles are principles. The United States expressed deep concern about recent events in Kyrgyzstan, where the authorities actually provoked mass protests and even clashes between demonstrators and police after the arrest of the famous deputy Azimbek Beknazarov. So what? The disgraced deputy (we will not touch on the essence of the matter here) had to be released from custody, and the killed and wounded - about a hundred people in total - were, as it were, written off as the costs of establishing democracy in Kyrgyzstan.
Today, the US Embassy in another Central Asian country, Kazakhstan, declares that “steps are being taken to intimidate the leaders of the political opposition and independent media.” Well, sad as it may be, the facts confirm this conclusion. Almost all independent newspapers and television channels opposed to the Nazarbayev regime have been closed. And not only in the capital, but also in regional centers. Two of the most authoritative opposition leaders were arrested. Moreover, the chairman of the political council of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, was taken under very scandalous circumstances.
“Interlocutor” has already said that the ambassadors of four Western countries signed a memorandum with the Kazakh authorities two weeks ago stating that Galymzhan Zhakiyanov will not be taken into custody, but will be placed under house arrest for the period of the investigation, and the ambassadors will have the opportunity to visit him, making sure that the terms of the agreement are being met. The ink on the paper did not have time to dry, and Zhakiyanov, under the protection of riot police, was transported by air to Pavlodar, where he is now being held not under house arrest, but in a barracks on the production territory of the Pavlodarsol company.
The authorities, meanwhile, went on the offensive (the best defense is an attack), accusing the four ambassadors of... communicating with Zhakiyanov for an inordinate amount of time every day and thereby grossly interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign Kazakhstan. But Western ambassadors are still perplexed: is the honest (and recorded) word of the most senior officials of this mysterious country really worth that much? And, of course, they make their official statements about this. The conflict is not going away.
"Secret Property"
Let us recall that the arrests of opposition leaders occurred almost immediately after, on the initiative of deputies of the Kazakh parliament belonging to the DCK, an official request was made to the Prime Minister regarding the accounts seized in Switzerland, Belgium and a number of other countries in connection with criminal cases of money laundering. The defendants included relatives of the president, as well as high-ranking officials of Kazakhstan. We talked about the vague and in some ways even funny explanations about this that Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov gave to the deputies in the previous issue. Recently, Nursultan Nazarbayev himself shared his thoughts on this topic in an interview with the Financial Times.
Nursultan Abishevich confirmed that indeed in 1997, on his instructions, a secret currency fund was created, the funds of which were kept (obviously for reliability. - A.K.) in Western banks. According to the President of Kazakhstan, the fund’s money was used for the benefit of the nation - payment of pensions, support of the national currency, etc. Nazarbayev calls on people to believe on his word of honor that “everything is clean there.”
The president’s word of honor, of course, is worth a lot, but numerous questions still remain: how and why was it possible to “purely” pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the fund, unnoticed by many high-ranking officials, deputies of both houses of parliament who approved the budget? How was it possible to do this for the benefit of the pensioners themselves, that they did not notice the burden of additional tenge in their wallets? The general public, including parliamentarians, wants, of course, to believe their president, but at the same time they are not averse to looking at specific documents that would make it possible to make sure that all the “inconspicuous” operations with almost a billion dollars carried out by the country’s top leadership were clean and transparent and there were no losses for the “secret property” of Kazakhstan. And finally, another important question: why did the Swiss prosecutor Bernard Bertossa get so angry and seize the accounts, the ownership of which for some reason is claimed not by pensioners, but by the president’s daughter?
It smells like mothballs
By arresting and transporting Galymzhan Zhakiyanov to Pavlodar, the authorities seem to have inflicted the greatest damage - like the non-commissioned officer's widow - on themselves. Known mainly only in his own republic, the leader of the democratic opposition has become recognizable both in Russia and Western countries over the past two weeks.
The former governor of the Pavlodar region is charged with abuse of power: he allegedly made a decision in 1999 to sell state stakes in Peschansky Repair and Mechanical Plant JSC and the Tort-Kuduk gold ore processing enterprise, which caused damage to the state.
In Pavlodar, everyone knows that in the first case we are talking about a small mechanical repair enterprise that repaired agricultural machinery, and in the second - about a depleted and low-capacity mine in the middle of the steppe. Both enterprises urgently needed investments, which the state could not give them. It’s funny that the decision to sell the state block of shares was made by the previous leadership of the region, and Zhakiyanov was just implementing it. And finally, the most surprising thing: two months later, the country’s leadership authorized its governors to make such decisions quite officially.
The conclusion suggests itself: the case was pulled out of mothballs when it became clear to the country’s leadership that the leaders of the democratic opposition did not want to be “pocketed.” When their questions to the authorities became too acute and uncomfortable for her.
And one more fact, which became known only at the time of signing the issue: judge of the Pavlodar City Court Oleg Korchagin, having considered Galymzhan Zhakiyanov’s appeals, ruled: for all the actions charged to him by the prosecutor’s office, “G. B. Zhakiyanov did not take part in the case and was not a party to the case.”
How the authorities, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office of the republic will respond to this, what the fate of not only Zhakiyanov, but also judge Korchagin will now be, probably only Allah knows.
Andrey Karavaev. Alma-Ata.