Tokayev sought to calm the situation by announcing a 180-day cap on fuel prices and removing Nazarbayev as head of the National Security Council. It has also been reported that several family members fled the country, claims that are as yet unverified. Read8 hours ago | Michael Saltsman and Charlyce Bozzello, Article viewed iconAn icon to mark the viewed articles PO Box 76421 Nursultan Nazarbayev during his time as president of Kazakhstan, Jos Giribs/Sddeutsche Zeitung Photo/Alamy, As first reported last month by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Some experts consider China, where Xi Jinping is building a cult of personality and has paved the way for lifelong rule, to now qualify. The new owner is Jysan Holdings LCC, a company which in turn is owned by NU Generation Foundation, a non-profit group, Boies Schiller Flexner said.
Former colonies in Africa and the Middle East had their national borders drawn for them by dying empires, who barely understood their subjects; new nations were formed with highly diverse, sometimes mutually antagonistic populations. NEW REPORT: Regional Autocrats Exploiting Instability, Expanding Power from Central Europe to Central Asia, Kazakhstan: Freedom House Urges De-escalation of Violence, Movement Toward Rule of Law, Kazakhstan: Release Human Rights Activist and Recognize Rights of Ethnic Minorities, NEW REPORT: Attacks on Democracy Intensify as Autocracy Spreads in Europe and Eurasia, Kazakhstan: Government Suspends Key Human Rights Organizations, Coronavirus shows the need for a human rightsbased approach to public health crises, Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism, Emergency Assistance and Thematic Programs. His departure does not appear to have specifically set off Kazakhstans protests. Troops were withdrawn again on January 15. Join the Freedom House monthly newsletter, 1850 M St. NW Floor 11 It has confirmed it is co-operating with the investigation. To make sure that Kazakhs do not forget that he is still around, he had the country's new capital, Nursultan, named after him, which was built entirely during his long reign and is a showcase for the opulence of an oil and gas-rich country. Foundations controlled by Nursultan Nazarbayev, a notorious autocrat who was in office until 2019, controlled $7.8bn in assets via Jusan Technologies. They must strike a balance between all of their countrys internal factions, ruling elites, security services and military brass, guaranteeing each enough power and spoils to keep them bought in, but without letting any grow powerful enough to challenge them. To help defend quality reporting and spark change, please support the Bureau, By But staying in office indefinitely is little better.
News reports never failed to mention the countrys poor human rights record, but they also expounded on its vast natural resources (particularly oil and gas), and its crucial role in supporting Britains withdrawal from Afghanistan. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was 93 and visibly declining when he was deposed in a coup. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of Kazakhstan in 1991, he was re-elected president in a popular vote. An opposition that demands freedom and democracy, Now Kazakhstan, another rebellion against totalitarianism, Algeria swaps the head of espionage and counter-espionage, perpetuating instability in its intelligence service, Telefnica will connect IoT devices via satellite with 5G technology, Turkey reinforces its fleet and plans new hydrocarbon exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, Russia resumes gas supplies to Germany via Nord Stream, Emirates successfully completes major tests to fully activate the last unit of Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, Mattarella considers early elections in Italy, Egypt celebrates its national day by highlighting good relations with Spain, Moussa AG Acharatoumane: "We need the action of international partners to fight Daesh", Celebrating more and better Ibero-America, Association Dr. Jaime Campos-Castell, an innovative proposal so that we all win at the same time that we add up to the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. But given the far-right parties and immigration panics gathering pace in European democracies, these problems hardly sound extreme even while Kazakhstans domestic policies resemble some of the worlds most autocratic societies. In essence, what they are purchasing is a kind of legal stability and protection. While post-Soviet attempts to popularise the civic Kazakhstani have since given way to a more ethnic Kazakh, the states idea of citizenship has never been racially exclusive. Last month, an outgoing minister claimed the government had delayed the planned economic crime bill, which would have, among other measures, beefed up Companies House, the UKs corporate registry. See a complete explanation of the series and a list of others profiled here.
But longer rule means a longer fall, for the leader and their country, once they inevitably depart. Write an article and join a growing community of more than 149,600 academics and researchers from 4,430 institutions. Even before the change in ownership, Nazarbayev did not personally benefit from the company, because although he has been the funds head, its charter forbids him from using its assets for his personal benefit, Boies Schiller said. You may change your billing preferences at any time in the Customer Center or call Beyond the 227 people reported dead as a result of the protests, more than 4,300 were injured and thousands arrested. The lesson, experts stress, is hardly that strongmen bring stability. | Mobile version, days of violent protests at the beginning of January, who also hand-picked the current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, requesting assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Since the Cold Wars end, most dictatorial governments have collapsed after their rulers departure. Read8 hours ago | Bjorn Lomborg, Article viewed iconAn icon to mark the viewed articles Investigative journalism is vital for democracy. This standard narrative is often applied to post-colonial states, and with good reason. Jade Gao/Agence France-Presse Getty Images. The goal of inter-ethnic harmony is prominent in official rhetoric; police training has been reworked to better prepare officers for work in a multi-cultural state. Header image: A statue of Nursultan Nazarbayev in the city of Nur-Sultan.
Nazarbayev's official title as "Leader of the Nation" as well as his position as head of the country's Security Council were intended to protect his safety and status. Previously at Bloomberg for 13 years, his work focused on corruption, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Washington, DC 20036. , Freedom House's annual study of political rights and civil liberties worldwide. Since the Cold Wars end, a staggering 70 percent of governments headed by strongmen collapsed after the ruler departed, according to one data set. Article viewed iconAn icon to mark the viewed articles He told an interviewer in 2014 that any country like his needed a sustainable system put in place that would be stable against the backdrop of a new leaders arrival, ticking through Malaysia or Singapore as possible models. In the following decades, Kazakh society changed enormously: growing urban centres hosted more and more Russians, nomadic communities were forced to settle by soldiers and farming efforts were collectivised. Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has run the country since before the end of the Soviet Union, is not one for democratic reform. He is also deputy chair of First Heartland Jusan Bank, one of Kazakhstans biggest banks and the companys most valuable business. Mr. Putin will eventually face the same problem of succession that Mr. Nazarbayev did. EC2P 2SH. MacIntyre Hudson was paid $462,000 by the company for the audit and other work during 2020. Read14 hours ago | Joel Thayer, Article viewed iconAn icon to mark the viewed articles Although Kazakhstan is formally a democracy, the successive electoral victories of the former president, the existence of severe de facto censorship and the violence of the repression are giving rise to a radical opposition, which is demanding the resignation of the president and his entourage and advocating the storming and seizure of the buildings housing the country's main institutions. It is registered in the UK, where it has just one employee. Read14 hours ago | Joseph Epstein, Opinion: How the Climate Elite Spread Misery, Opinion: On TikTok, Its All Fun and Games Until China Wants Your Info, Save 15% or more on the Best Buy deal of the Day, Black Friday in July: Extra 30% off sitewide - JCPenney coupon code, Free $20 Home Depot coupon with Pro Xtra membership sign up, 60% off running shoes and apparel at Nike, Can We Build It? The central Asian country is the world's biggest uranium exporter and is among the top oil and coal producers. Nazarbayev, who led the country from 1991 until 2019, has long held outsized sway over Kazakhstan, almost single-handedly making key business and political decisions for the past 30 years. The similarities between Kazakhstan and Syria are skin-deep; anyone who claimed that the two regimes were functionally identical would be a brave sort of social scientist. Credit: Dmitry Karaman/TASS/Alamy. In early 2021, it reportedly used some of that money to pay $430m in dividends to shareholders, defying a requirement from Kazakhstans financial regulator . The immense wealth amassed by Nazarbayevs foundations has relied heavily on Kazakh state funds. In their place, the Nazarbayev administration has taken its highly diverse nation and embarked on an overt and concerted project of nation-building. Like the protests in Belarus under dictator Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstan has moved from protests against rising prices to more political demands for freedom and democracy. What is happening in Kazakhstan now is exactly the kind of contingency that they probably had in mind, or that their enablers who drew up these agreements were asked to bear in mind., John Penrose, the Conservative MP, said: Weve got to be at the leading edge of anti-corruption and anti-fraud measures, which means the economic crime bill should be an immediate, urgent priority We will not threaten our prosperity by introducing these standards, in fact we threaten it if we do not.. The accounts disclosed net assets of $1.6bn and net profits of more than $550m for 2020. Some of the abuses included: Severe limits on political freedoms and freedom of speech; detainee and prisoner abuse; arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of government opponents; lack of an independent judiciary; pervasive corruption; discrimination and violence against women; and trafficking in persons. But any keystone is also the point of greatest weakness. President Tokayev has already warned them that they could be considered foreign agents and that they should refrain from continuing their "criminal acts" as they would be severely punished. Among other companies, Sheikh Tahnoun chairs Group 42, an artificial intelligence business which held a 3% stake in Jusan Technologies as recently as last year via an investment vehicle called QAZ42. The moment of transfer has almost always been a moment of crisis, the scholar Andrew Nathan has written, involving purges or arrests, factionalism, sometimes violence, and opening the door to the chaotic intrusion into the political process of the masses or the military.. Boies Schiller said the UK had been chosen as the holding companys base because of its highly respected legal regime. We use cookies to improve our service for you. Since the countrys civil war began, Bashar al-Assads Alawite heritage has stoked Sunni Syrians fears of ethnic cleansing. North Korea is the only modern non-monarchy to have reached a third generation of family autocratic rule. As a result, strongmen-led dictatorships tend to be more repressive and more corrupt. This has heightened the stakes, with many post-Soviet leaders extending term limits. While Kazakhstan encourages its people and international observers to look to the future with its immaculate new capital, Astana, the contrast with other Central Asian nations could hardly be greater. Privacy Policy | By definition, dictatorships lack any transparent method of conciliation; when disagreement and discord arise, they instead opt for violent repression. Such leaders are increasingly common worldwide, a point of convergence for both calcifying dictatorships and backsliding democracies. Writers and broadcasters sagely remind us that no country is homogeneous, and that dictatorships have little chance of survival without democratic space in which to manage difference peacefully. So it has gone in Syria. Despite the country's vastness (2.8 million km2 ) and small population, the protest movement that started in the city of Janaozen in the Mangystau region quickly spread to Almaty, the former capital and main economic centre, and to Aktau, the main city on the Caspian Sea. Protests began over the weekend in western Kazakhstan after the government lifted caps on fuel prices.
Why do states and societies collapse? None of our funders have any influence over the Bureaus editorial decisions or output. Anyone can read what you share. For example, last summer, Cameron became the first British Prime Minister to visit the country while in office. Boies Schiller Flexner said the people and entities involved were independent of Nazarbayev and the purpose of the venture was to fund Kazakhstans Nazarbayev University and other educational projects. Worse, we dont even enforce our existing laws against any of this wrongdoing.. "I haven't gone anywhere," he said, flanked by Kazakh flags, instead telling viewers that he had been in the capital Nur-Sultan throughout the unrest. Tokayev, for instance, used the unrest as an opportunity to remove Nazarbayev from the Security Council and appoint himself chairman. It is why, just as Mr. Nazarbayevs exit in 2019 is thought to have been closely watched in palace drawing rooms from Moscow to Manila, it is a safe bet that the turmoil he failed to forestall will be as well. Its also why the disappearance of a dictator, even a reviled one, tends to produce panicked rumors as citizens fear the consequences of a power vacuum. Simon Lock Make no mistake, tensions do exist in Kazakhstan: concerted efforts have been made to diminish the perceived influence of Russians, especially in the north of the country. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev fired his cabinet and reinstituted price controls, but it wasnt enough for a population fed up with much more than expensive liquefied petroleum gas. As the leaders health inevitably falters, rivals or even allies may be tempted to grab for power before someone else can take it first. He did not respond to requests for comment. Their successors often face serious challenges in governance, she said, citing Venezuela, where President Nicols Maduro has faced ever-mounting crises since taking over from Hugo Chvez in 2013. Mr. Nazarbayev stage-managed his own departure in ways that suggest painstaking attention to the lessons of history, and his transition was watched closely in Moscow and other capitals as a potential model. His deployment this week of foreign troops to quell unrest in Kazakhstan represents a short-term victory for his revanchist foreign policy, but it also exposes the fragility of his ambition. The trolley-buses of Almaty boast small television screens, which show video clips of variable quality. The final caption reads Kazakhstan it is you. But Kazakhstans continuing success shows how wrongheaded our assumptions may be. Appointing flunkies or other easily controlled subordinates creates a similar problem. Along with the Baltic States, which he considers irredentist, Ukraine and Belarus, Kazakhstan is one of the jewels of the defunct Russian empire, which Vladimir Putin would like to resurrect. Jusan Technologies most recent accounts filed in October 2021 showed $7.8bn in gross assets which included more than $3bn in cash were owned through banking, telecoms and retail businesses, mainly in Kazakhstan. She said the UK had turned a blind eye to suspect wealth and claimed a string of Kazakh elites had become wealthy through crony capitalism under the Nazarbayev regime. Nazarbayev was elected president of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990. Customer Service. Freedoms of speech and assembly remain restricted, and corruption is endemic. Per capita GDP has increased twelvefold since 1994, and post-Soviet turmoil has left behind a craving for stability." You will be notified in advance of any changes in rate or terms. Several of Nazarbayevs old associates have had connections to this booming business empire. This is much more than a problem for strongmen. Nursultan Nazarbayev denied rumors he fled as well as those of strife with his successor. In Tuesday's video, 81-year-old Nazarbayev repeated the claim that he had entirely quitpolitics, saying, "I am enjoying my well-deserved retirement.". Contact Some protest has been attributed to militant Islam or economic inequality, and there are fears that the country will struggle to maintain its much-publicised stability when a successor to Nazarbayev inevitably comes forward. She added: The government in Kazakhstan had a very long track record of providing support to the banks.
Troops were withdrawn again on January 15. As order disintegrates, so do borders. On January 6, the CSTO sent more than 2,000 troops to Kazakhstan to help quell the protests. There is no restless young elite that wants to take over the government. Reporters: Franz Wild, Ed Siddons, Simon Lock and Matt OliverDesk editor: Franz WildGlobal editor: James BallBureau editor: Meirion JonesProduction: Frankie Goodway and Alex HessFact checker: Alice MillikenLegal team: Stephen Shotnes (Simons Muirhead Burton). In 2007, the U.S. State Department listed a host of human rights abuses reported in Kazakhstan, and only some improvements have been made since. Sometimes, as in Spain after Francisco Francos death in 1975, it opens the way to democratization. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has successfully rebranded a Soviet workers holiday as Unity Day, an explicit attempt to bring all the ethnic groups living in our country even closer together. University of Sheffield provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK. 
Kazakhstan has been under the rule of Nursultan Nazarbayev for thirty years, who took power in the last republic to declare independence when the USSR collapsed in 1991. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. , 2022 Deutsche Welle | Since 2017, we have witnessed the brazen consolidation of the Kazakh banking sector under the Nazarbayev family, said Kate Mallinson, a Eurasia and Russia specialist at Chatham House. Nursultan Nazarbayev insisted that he had not fled the country, and dismissed rumors of a rift between him and his hand-picked successor. A jewel in which the Soviet Union carried out most of its nuclear tests in the open, leaving enormous and serious consequences for the territory and the Kazakh population that suffered them. Observers see that cult crashing now as former loyalists are forced to realign with the country's president as a result of January's upheaval. Still, children often prove unable to win the necessary support, inviting challengers to try to take power themselves. But stifling rising stars, hollowing out power centers and stuffing institutions with loyalists (often chosen because they are too weak to pose a threat) leaves the government barely able to stand on its own. After days of violent anti-government protests, the situation in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, appears to have stabilized. An image of President Vladimir Putin on Moscows outskirts last year. Nazarbayev oversaw the foundations. With every passing year, it becomes harder for autocrats to hand off power, while the risks rise of disaster if a crisis should force them out. PhD Student in Soviet History, University of Sheffield. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. London , Still, a recent feud between Nazarbayev and his son-in-law, Rakhat Aliyev, is threatening the country's stability, especially after Aliyev came out in public and said his father-in-law had essentially returned the country to the dictatorial Soviet days, calling Nazarbayev "Mr. President for life.". Your opinion can help us make it better. The new territory pulled together a host of tribal communities, with different agricultural practices and widely varying interpretations of Islam. Quite the opposite: Their style of rule erodes the foundations of governance, making themselves indispensable at the cost of leaving behind a political system barely capable of governing but primed for infighting. Yerbol Orynbayev, who served as deputy prime minister and assistant to the president under Nazarbayev until 2015, was a director of Jusan Technologies and owned a 4.6% stake.