KZBlog

On the eve of Nazarbayev’s visit to the White House on Sept. 29th, speculation and analysis abounds as to what the issues on the table will be. The White House site has a nice list:

Democracy Promotion:
Kazakhstan Neweurasia has put up a slighting cartoon from The Economist. This is one big issue. And one that Nazarbayev may be asked by the reporters. Since it is not common for him to personally address reporters in Kazakhstan, nor for government officials to comment on anything except in formal, planned press-conferences, this is where the interesting bit occurs. We will remember when Condoleezza Rice visited Kazakhstan, and allegedly, Nazarbayev was stopped by her before he walked off the stage without taking questions. Rice also recounted that after the press conference, in which Andrea Koppel asked the President if he were a dictator, Nazarbayev asked her what he should do with such accusations. She advised that he answer them. So I am personally waiting to hear answers to questions about the Sarsenbayev trial, as well as a repeat of Ms. Koppel’s question.

One subheading here is the bid for the OSCE Presidency. Committees are busily meeting to put into place democratic reforms to make the bid more viable.

During the session, members of the state commission will discuss the questions regarding the work of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs concerning the course of promotion of Kazakhstan presidency in OSCE in 2009. The special representative of Kazakhstan in OSCE, the first Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Rakhat Aliyev will make a report on the topic.

One interesting tidbit from this is that Aliyev, also son-in-law of the President, in his report claimed that Kazakhstan is the sole candidate for the Presidency in 2009, though Reuters claims that Greece and Latvia are also putting forth bids.

Adam Kesher of Neweurasia covers the OSCE issue well.

Aliyev has recently been the source of some fun and mockery due to his article on whether Kazakhstan should be a monarchy of Kazakhstan. While he claims that constitutional monarchies are more democratic than republic—

[Aliyev] concluded, “We speak here solely and exclusively of a constitutional monarchy, a liberal monarchy, and however paradoxical it might sound, a democratic one, with developed and really independent institutions of power — parliament, government, independent judicial system based on the rule of law, and a responsible and independent press.
From Euraisanet.org

–many are laughing that he wants to be Prince! The opposition is noting that if one of them printed an article like this, they and the editor of the newspaper would be in jail!

Energy Diversification
This gets at the heart of the question of how much oil their really is in the Caspian Sea, whether Kazakhstan owns a lot of it, and whether they can get it out without turning the Caspian into an environmental disaster.

But it also turns on civilian nuclear energy, which Kazakhstan is developing. Politically, Kazakhstan, is attending the 50th International atomic energy session. And not only has the nation has not given up economic or diplomatic ties to Iran, in a stand of support one assumes for nations that want to develop nuclear power, but, Nazarbayev has addressed the comparison head on in his piece in Le Monde in July, My Advice to Iran. Essentially, he argues for the end of nuclear weapons, but for the world to leave nations alone in developing nuclear power.

Expanding Prosperity
Has been the subject of a number of high level visits from the US to Kazakhstan, especially in the Department of Agriculture.

The USA is the largest foreign investor in Kazakhstan. The total amount of investments into the economy of our country exceeds $12 billion that makes one third of all foreign investments into the economy of the Republic,
Quoted by Kazakhstan Today

And of course Kazakhstan wants help in becoming one of the 50 most competitive countries in the world and diversifying its economy. As much fun as is being made of the US for playing nice with oil-rich Kazakhstan, we note that Kazakhstan is being pretty nice to the investment-rich USA, as well.

Finally, of course the topic on everyone’s mind, except Bush and Nazarbayev: Borat and PR!. And enough said about that!