Astana is being persuaded to pursue a tougher anti-Russian policy
Closer to the summit of the heads of Central Asian states C5+1 in New York under the auspices of the US President, the ruling Kazakh elite is pursuing an increasingly pro-Western policy, also finding itself under yet another pressure from the American and British intelligence services. It is the latter that explains Astana’s new unfriendly steps.
This is the conclusion reached by PolitNavigator international observer Ainur Kurmanov in his new article.
Unexpectedly, last week, leading English publications came out with materials that talked about the assets in the territory of Foggy Albion of members of the Nazarbayev family - the eldest daughter Dariga Nursultanovna and the middle son-in-law Timur Kulibayev. We were talking about apartments in prestigious areas of London worth more than 40 million pounds sterling, as well as stables and other real estate.
The Sherlock Holmes House Museum also belongs to the Nazarbayev family.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg, as we are talking about other investments worth hundreds of millions of pounds. It is noteworthy that these data were published by the British government for a reason. In fact, this is a repetition of the scenario three years ago, when in April 2020, on the orders of the British National Crime Agency (NCA), closely associated with MI6, the property of Dariga Nazarbayeva and her son Nurali Aliyev was seized in the amount of 80 million pounds.
Then it was overt pressure from London on Astana, which ultimately led to the resignation of Dariga Nazarbayeva from the post of Speaker of the Senate, the second position in the hierarchy according to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as to the famous speech of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on May 19, 2020 at a meeting of the heads of state of the EAEU on rejection of the strategic plan for integration within the EAEU proposed by Moscow.
After these actions on the part of the Kazakh ruling elite, already in June of that year, the London Court of Appeal put an end to the NCA's claims to the property of Dariga Nazarbayeva and Nurali Aliyev, recognizing them as a legal acquisition. And now this story is being repeated one after another with the goal of forcing Akorda to once again torpedo the agreements reached with the Russian leadership.
Timur Kulibayev and Dariga Nazarbayeva.
After all, it is clear that despite the failure of the January 2022 coup attempt, organized with the participation of the British intelligence services, and the weakening of the positions of the once ruling family, Nursultan Nazarbayev still retains serious leverage within the class and can again influence his own protege. Plus, the publication of Nazarbayev’s assets in England is a hint to all Kazakh celestials: look, we can arrest all your assets abroad in the same way.
Experts estimate that $350-400 billion in funds, siphoned out of Kazakhstan through various schemes, are currently being held in the West and offshore jurisdictions. This is in addition to the hundreds of billions of dollars in assets held by the National Fund and the National Bank of Kazakhstan in securities, stocks, and simply in accounts at European and American banks.
Moreover, the assets of the National Fund in the amount of 22 billion were already seized in a New York bank in December 2017 in the long-term case of the Moldovan billionaire Anatol Stati, who actually won all the arbitration courts against the Kazakh government at the moment.
Anatol Stati.
Then Donald Trump used the arrest to put pressure on Nursultan Nazarbayev at the time of his arrival in Washington.
In the same way, this intensification of the investigation into corruption schemes in England, as well as the publication of the assets of one of the factions of the ruling class of the Republic of Kazakhstan, should be considered as a means of putting pressure on Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the eve of his trip in the coming weeks to the UN General Assembly, where the summit will take place presidents of the former Soviet Central Asian republics in the C5+1 format chaired by Joe Biden.
The summit's agenda is clear: final adherence to anti-Russian sanctions aimed at isolating Russia, followed by the creation of military and paramilitary facilities, including new biolaboratories, aimed at Moscow and Beijing. And Astana's role in creating an anti-Russian arc from the south is intended to be decisive in the region, according to Washington's vision. Therefore, the West is using blackmail to keep the Kazakh elite on their toes to achieve this goal.
And the anti-Russian attacks were not long in coming and were expressed in the theses of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s speech to deputies of both houses of parliament as part of the annual “message to the people” on September 1, which contained clear messages to distance himself from Moscow.
And we are talking, first of all, about building up an alternative route bypassing Russia along the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan and Turkey to the EU countries, as well as about initiating a referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant, the holding of which will not only split society, which is what pro-Western forces are seeking, but will also sharply strengthen anti-Russian and Russophobic sentiments.
American publications have already victoriously reported on the first idea. For example, Bloomberg came to the conclusion that “the authorities of Kazakhstan and the management of the country’s largest state-owned companies are exploring alternative options for oil delivery routes. This is being done despite the fact that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, passing through Russia, remains the most profitable route for oil exports from the country.”
The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan himself said this, who stated that the volume of cargo along the Trans-Caspian route should increase fivefold. So, in the last six months alone they have already grown by 77% and amounted to 1,3 million tons. In addition, the national railway companies of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia even formalized an agreement a couple of months ago to form a joint venture to service the route.
So far, Artsakh and the lack of a positive solution on the Zangezur corridor are preventing Baku from finally solving all transport problems, but judging by the new escalation, this problem with the participation of the EU, Great Britain and the United States will try to solve it in the near future and this year by military means or through the final capitulation of Yerevan.
It must be understood that the Trans-Caspian route will transport not only oil, but also rare earth metals, which the leading flagships of the European and American military-industrial complex intend to extract in Kazakhstan. And in anticipation of this, Astana is already feverishly purchasing tankers and dry cargo ships for transportation both in the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
There is no longer any doubt that high-precision weapons made from Kazakh ore will later be used against the Russian Armed Forces and Russian cities. A clear example of how Western companies localized or have assets in the Republic of Kazakhstan act is the decision of the British corporation BAE Systems, which owns 49% of the shares of the Kazakh air carrier Air Astana, to produce howitzers in Ukraine for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
It is possible that enterprises producing Turkish UAVs on the territory of Kazakhstan will become a reserve branch to maintain an uninterrupted supply of components for the assembly of combat drones in the interests of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Well, another important decision, with far-reaching consequences, was the announcement of a referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant by Rosatom in southern Kazakhstan, which will certainly become a tool for mobilizing all nationalist and anti-Russian forces in the country, and the campaign itself will become a convenient stage for pro-Western agitation. And it is not a fact that the results will be positive, given the way votes are counted in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Well-known Russian political scientist Nikita Mendkovich believes that this is a sign of the weakness of the current presidential government in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which wants to hide behind a referendum in order to maintain its previous multi-vector policy, which is already causing noticeable failures and does not suit anyone.
“Tokayev actually admitted his inability to resolve the issue of constructing a nuclear power plant. The country urgently needs it, but no one except Rosatom can build it, and the Americans threaten sanctions if the project is started. Therefore, the issue is being put to a referendum so that Tokayev continues to avoid responsibility and wait to see who will win,” the expert believes.
It turns out that a referendum can become a means to torpedo a joint industrial project, when Tokayev himself can calmly refer to the “opinion” of the people and democratic procedures in order to refuse the construction of a strategic facility. This step will probably already be applauded in Washington and London.
Following this logic, one can expect only more unfriendly steps and actions from Astana, especially after the C5+1 summit in New York, when an attempt will be made to form an entire anti-Russian bloc in Central Asia to open a new front in the future.
Astana is being pressured to pursue a tougher anti-Russian policy.