The Week in Kazakhstan: Paint It Gray

Kazakhstan’s Central Bank increased on March 7 the base interest rate by 1.25 percentage points to 16.5% in connection to worse forecasts concerning inflation. Prices are poised to grow faster than earlier expected, the regulator said, forecasting a 10-12% annual inflation by year end.

Kazakhstan exceeded by around 13% its OPEC+ oil production quota, Reuters reported on March 3. The following day, the ministry of energy announced a 12% increase in exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in March. On March 7, however, the vice-minister of energy said that the CPC throughput will actually decrease to around 70% of capacity in March. In mid-February, the CPC was hit by a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian territory.

Aktorgyn Akkenzhebalasy, an activist from Almaty, was sentenced on March 3 to 10 days in detention for a rally that took place in May last year. At the time, Akkenzhebalasy and other activists took to the streets to demand a life sentence against former minister of economy Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who had killed his wife and was facing trial. Last week, Zhanar Sekerbayeva, another activist and co-founder of the Feminita NGO, was arrested for 10 days for the same protest. Both arrests were ordered days before March 8, International Women’s Day, which is often a day of public protests in Almaty. Feminist organizations have not been able to obtain permits to organize rallies for IWD in recent years.

The Kazakhstan-British Technical University is now under state ownership, according to a report by the educational institution published in late February. KBTU, established in 2000 and hosted in the former House of Government building in Almaty, had been owned by the national oil and gas company Kazmunaigas until 2018, when it was sold to the Nursultan Nazarbayev Education Foundation, headed and co-owned by Dinara Kulibayeva, the former president’s daughter.

Madina Bekturganova, the wife of presidential adviser Kuanyshbek Yesekeyev, became a shareholder in the Almaty-based International IT University, according to a report published in mid-February. Earlier, the Nursultan Nazarbayev Education Foundation was the sole shareholder in the university. The details of the agreement with Bekturganova regarding her purchase of a stake in the educational institution were not published. Yesekeyev was the head of Kazakhtelecom from 2010 to 2024, when he was promoted to adviser to the president.

Argyn Nigmatullin, the eldest brother of the former speaker of parliament, was placed on March 6 on the international wanted list by Kazakhstan’s authorities. Earlier, the Prosecutor General’s Office had stated that Nigmatullin is suspected of having embezzled public funds.

“They painted over the kitten, but when will they clean up the city from this smog?” said a new mural painted in Almaty by street artist Pasha Cas on March 2, before being removed the following day. A few days earlier, a mural on the same wall representing “The Kitten Named Woof” by Pasha Cas had been painted over in connection with facade renovations. The artist wrote on social media that “city authorities are wasting their energy on fighting street art,” and asked: “When will the real fight for clean air begin?”. The local administration denied any role in the removal of the murals.

Yermek Narymbay, a veteran political activist, was given a five-day arrest on March 5 for failing to comply with a court order that bans him from any political activity. He had earlier written a Facebook post that criticized the president, the prosecutor general, the prime minister, and other high-ranking officials.

A London court overturned an arbitral previously granted to Canadian uranium miner World Wide Minerals, Global Arbitration Review reported on March 3. According to the details of the case, Kazakhstan’s government had been required to pay $55 million in connection to a failed uranium processing project in the late 1990s.

Italy’s ENI reportedly withdrew from the Isatai and Abai offshore oil projects, the PetroCouncil publication reported on March 5. The company Isatai Operating, co-owned by ENI and Kazmunaigas, had already renounced the rights to the fields in March 2023.