Kazakh Ex-President Holds ‘Private Talks’ With Putin In Moscow
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on December 20 confirmed media reports about former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev holding talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week, telling journalists that the talks were “absolutely private.”
Media reports in Kazakhstan said earlier that Nazarbaev and Putin had been scheduled to hold talks on December 19, while Telegram channels in Russia said Nazarbaev had arrived in Moscow on December 18.
Nazarbaev, 83, who had resigned as president in 2019, picking longtime ally Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev as his successor, retained sweeping powers as the head of the Security Council, enjoying almost limitless powers as “elbasy” — the leader of the nation. Many of his relatives continued to hold important posts in the government, security agencies, and profitable energy groups.
But Nazarbaev and his clan lost influence in the oil-rich Central Asian state after unprecedented anti-government protests in January last year, which started over a fuel price hike and spread across Kazakhstan because of discontent over the cronyism that had long plagued the country.
At least 238 people were killed across Kazakhstan, mostly in the country’s largest city, Almaty, after the protests turned violent.
Toqaev subsequently stripped Nazarbaev of the Security Council role, taking it over himself.
Just days after the protests, two of Nazarbaev’s sons-in-law, Qairat Sharipbaev and Dimash Dosanov, were pushed out of top jobs at two major state companies, QazaqGaz and KazTransOil, respectively, and a third son-in-law, Timur Kulibaev, resigned from his post as chairman of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, Atameken.
In late February 2022, Nazarbaev’s eldest daughter, Darigha Nazarbaeva, quit her parliamentary seat.
Nazarbaev’s once-powerful nephew Qairat Satybaldy and his former wife were also sentenced to six years in prison each in separate trials on corruption charges.
Toqaev said publicly at the time he wanted Nazarbaev’s associates to share their wealth with the public by making regular donations to a new charity foundation.
In his book My Life. From Dependence To Freedom, published in early December, Nazarbaev describes Putin as his close friend and blamed the West for Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Nazarbaev last met with Putin in Moscow in June last year. Before that, in late December 2021, weeks before the deadly unrest in Kazakhstan and two months before Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, Nazarbaev, Toqaev and the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, held talks with Putin in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg.
