KZBlog

Yeah, lame post title. I haven’t written about the firing of Mukhtar Dzhakishev as head of Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state uranium company. Dzhakishev. In and of itself this would be newsworthy because Kazatomprom can genuinely be called an internationally competitive country. Kazakhstan has been blessed with a lot of uranium but Dzhakishev has done a lot right in running the company and Kazatomprom is considered a major player in the uranium industry. Dzhakishev is also one of the few (possibly only) people who has worked in the same industry and the same job since independence. Whereas other government officials and businessmen seem to shift here and there every couple of year, Dzhakishev has been doing the same thing. Some of us had hoped his success would grab someone’s attention and create a new model here in Kazakhstan where experience
is valued.

So Dzhakishev’s removal was already newsworthy before the general prosecutor’s office announced they were arresting him for corruption; specifically he is accused of using shell companies to buy state-owned uranium mines for (presumably) himself and his friends. Dzhakishev is known to be close to Mukhtar Ablyazov, an opposition leader and ex-head of BTA Bank, who is also under investigation for corruption. Some claim that evidence that Ablyazov and Dzhakishev were working together came up during the investigation of BTA Bank. Others claim that the move is purely political; Dzhakishev’s friendship with an opposition member is simply unacceptable as the government tries to consolidate power and influence. Still others say the arrest is part of a larger campaign to weed out corruption, one that has already seen the removal of top management in Kazakh Temir Zholi and KazMunaiGas.

The reason I mention it now is an article by the AFP makes an intriguing point:

“Our information confirms the illegal tranfer of more than 60 percent of the state’s uranium deposits into the property of Dzhakishev and the companies he owned,” a KNB spokesman told reporters in the capital Astana.
Authorities did not explain how Dzhakishev managed to steal more than half of the country’s uranium deposits out from under the government’s nose. All uranium deals in Kazakhstan are heavily monitored and audited by the state.