KZBlog

Or my blog. Or the Roberts Report. Days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Dariga Nazarbayeva had commissioned a report on the Kazakh Gate trial and that the document (hundreds of pages long) was in Rakhat Aliyev’s hands, Mr. Aliyev has announced his willingness to give evidence in the Kazakh Gate trial.

Rakhat Aliyev has shown his interest in embarrassing the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his colleagues. In the months between the call for his arrest and his trials in absentia for treason, kidnapping, assault, and illegal business practices, Aliyev released a number of phone calls of high political officials, members of the Nurotan party, and businessmen. Perhaps his interest in appearing in the Kazakhgate trials is to embarrass the powers that be in Kazakhstan further, either out of revenge or in the hopes of brokering a deal so that he can return to power.