“I don’t see a battle for power between the clans at all”
Last week, the French newspaper Le Monde wrote that Lake Geneva’s shores have become a stage for the fierce battle between two hostile Kazakh clans. According to the article’s author, Viktor Khrapunov and the current president of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev are engaged in a “war of damaging actions”.
The K-plus TV channel was able to get in touch with the former mayor of Almaty and find out what he thinks about it.
-Viktor Viacheslavovich, the newspaper Le monde recently featured a publication discussing the stand between the Nazarbayev clan and those who’re currently, who’re outside of Kazakhstan, including yourself. Are such claims substantiated at all?
-It benefits the Nazarbayev clan, the Nazarbayev family to present the situation to the global community in such a way: that there’s a war going on between the clans, the Nazarbayev clan is fighting with another clan who’s hungry for power. But this isn’t the case at all.
The battle’s roots are inside the clan. I tried to show the Kazakh people and the global community what’s going on within the Nazarbayev family today. Having become independent and received great financial capital, the children from his first marriage are aiming for power while President Nazarbayev wants to retain his power. And, of course, he’s nurturing the idea of bringing his sons to positions of power.
As for what the Kazakh government machine is doing in regard to the people who’re forced to remain abroad, it’s none other than political persecution.
Paradoxically, Nazarbayev talks about a battle between the clans while we’re saying that this is a consequence of his political agenda. I connect this process with a significant factor – the process of Kazakhstan’s formation and development. We saw that (having obtained independence) Kazakhstan began gaining profits from exporting hydrocarbon, I emphasize, exporting crude oil, natural gas, not processed products with a high added
value but raw material, ore.
If we look at the distribution of production export from Kazakhstan, we’ll see that Kazakhstan sells abroad: 35% of the total amount – hydrocarbon; 17% – iron ore; 18% – non-ferrous metals. This comes to 70%. In addition, approximately 9% is export of grains.
And no more than 10% is left for everything else. As we can see, the oil, gas, and mining industries are comparable in volume to the industry of Kazakhstan – 35% to 35%.
The banking and finance economic sector of Kazakhstan which isn’t completely under President Nazarbayev’s control for a number of reasons, came up to approximately the same level. So, sensing that the young people at the helm of the banks have started firmly establishing themselves and have received access to great financial resources, he is now developing a program for seizing the banking and financial economic sector.
The manager of Kazcommercebank was shifted in a very simple way, forced to leave the country, and is now residing abroad. The Alliance Bank manager was declared a criminal in a very simple way; at first, he left Kazakhstan, then gave himself up and was pardoned by the President, but his bank was taken away. The exact same methods were applied to Umir-bank, Temir-bank, ValiutTransitBank.
The same Draconian measures were taken against the BTA Bank which was one of the powerful banks in Kazakhstan. They employed a very interesting fact when the National Bank’s manager suddenly declares that BTA doesn’t have sufficient cash reserves and that the National bank is prepared to set aside a certain amount to supplement the bank’s cash reserves. Thanks to this firm statement of the National Bank’s manager, the bank signs the relevant document and sends it to the National bank. This fact was instantly used against BTA, and several days later, masked people burst into the bank, had everyone lie down on the floor, and took over the bank.
That is, Nursultan Nazarbayev saw that certain people working in the banking and finance sector have gained access to significant money and felt that these financial resources could be used to launch an initiative to weaken his power. And so he tried to do everything possible to place the banking and finance sector under his control.
Today, the entire banking and finance sector of Kazakhstan’s economy is in the hands of the Nazarbayev clan. Those people who didn’t agree to give up their banks just like that were forced to leave Kazakhstan. Now the whole government system aims at proving that the culprit for this situation is neither Nazarbayev nor the government but whoever refused to give their bank to Nazarbayev.
I personally witnessed a conversation when the bank manager said that the bank has many credit resources to the tune of 14 billion dollars. The sensible people ought to understand what exactly they’re taking over, what financial institution. Now the government machine is doing everything to prove that this person is a state criminal who has stolen money from his own bank.
That’s why I don’t see any battle for power between the clans. This is President Nazarbayev’s reprisal against those who challenged the regime, the system, and Nazarbayev won’t back down and will employ all possible ways and means in order to reach his goal. If not of destroying these people, then at the least of creating a certain negative image for them in Kazakhstan and abroad. This is his main goal.
The interview is presented in an abbreviated form
