KZBlog

Eurasianet.org is reporting on the murder of Zamanbek Nurkadilov who was once akim of Almaty, among his other government posts. He is one of those who like Tuyakbi, opposition candidate for President, made a sudden break citing corruption in the Administration and so on. Many of course wonder why he didn’t mention this corruption while he worked there.

It’s being reported as a suicide but it’s hard to shoot yourself 3 times and it isn’t clear why he would kill himself. The Eursianet article cites a claim that he was about to reveal corruption in the Administration. The fact that his own pistol (a gift) was found near the body seems like a weak attempt at framing.

The only inside scoop I can give you is that there are, obviously, rumors that Nazarbayev did it. There are rumors that Tuyakbai did it because of disagreements over the direction of the opposition and also in order to pin it on Nazarbayev. All agree that it is a bad sign because 1) He was a powerful guy who shouldn’t have been so easily taken out.
2) We had sort of hoped Kazakhstan was above political deaths in general
3) It’s a shame that people are willing to believe that Nazarbayev killed him or that Tuyakbai killed him. One hopes for the days when people will say, “Not in Kazakhstan. That sort of thing never happens.”

The local news on gazeta.kz police investigation and the announcement with details of the house and the crime scene for those interested in such things. To their credit, though certain officials seem to still be referring to the incident as a suicide, gazeta.kz is pretty clearly neutral on the subject. We also note that the Herald Tribune quotes the police chief of Almaty as ruling out a political death.

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In other news, I was waiting until I had something beyond the Borat article before announcing myself, but I’ve been outed and I’m pleased to hear it even if it happened during a personal trip. I didn’t even get to break this murder in a timely fashiion, but I promise to be more active and up-to-date–as much as the day job permits.