The Observer (2022-01-09)

The Observer

World 09.01.22 25

were 20,000 such “bandits” in Almaty
alone. He also posted a message in
English on Twitter: “In my basic view,
no talks with the terrorists: We must
kill them.” It was later deleted.
“Before, he came across as a mealy-
mouthed quiet diplomat, but the
rhetoric we saw on Friday was that
of a general leading an army,” said
Kate Mallinson, associate fellow at
Chatham House.
Amnesty International described
Tokayev’s promise to shoot without
warning as “a recipe for disaster”,
and there is now a question of how
much the government response will
differentiate between peaceful pro-
testers and violent groups. Tokayev
put Kazakhstan’s already beleaguered
civil society on alert when he said that
free media played a role in fanning
the unrest.
“There is still very little independ-
ent information and a lot of uncer-
tainty. However, one thing is clear:
the peaceful protest was genu-
ine and spontaneous,” said Diana
T Kudaibergenova, a sociologist at
Cambridge University. “People went
to the streets to voice their grievances
and we saw some self-organisation,
especially in western Kazakhstan.”
The protest began in the west
last weekend, sparked by rising fuel
prices, and quickly spread to other cit-
ies, including Almaty. There, many of
those on the streets reported that on
Wednesday and Thursday the dem-
onstration was hijacked by violent
groups, some of whom appeared to
be well organised, and who attacked
government buildings and briefly
seized the airport.
Tokayev, in his address, spoke
vaguely about “foreign-trained”
attackers, but gave no details and did
not specify who they were supposedly
working for.
Many questions remain about the
role of Nazarbayev in the week’s
apparent backstage quarrels. Tokayev
announced on Wednesday that he
was removing Nazarbayev from head
of the security council, without stat-
ing whether that was with or with-
out the former president’s approval.
There were persistent rumours
throughout the week that Nazarbayev
and his family had fl ed the country.
Yesterday , Nazarbayev’s spokes-
person Aidos Ukibay denounced the
rumours as “knowingly false and
speculative information”. He said
Nazarbayev was in close contact
with Tokayev and wanted the nation
to rally around the new president. But
the man himself has been silent dur-

‘Turkey is our

biggest problem’

Northern Cypriots who

dream of reunifi cation

Page 27

25

Sarajevo pins its hopes

on Hotel Igman

Bosnian capital bids to

ditch grim past

Page 29

How the Kazakh

elite put its wealth

into UK property

Ministers face claims they have

allowed the ruling elite of Kazakhstan

to secretly invest vast chunks of the

country’s wealth in the London prop-

erty market after failing to introduce

promised new transparency laws.

Former prime minister David

Cameron pledged at an anti-corrup-

tion summit in London in 2016 that

the UK would end the secret offshore

ownership of property. More than fi ve

years later, a proposed register of for-

eign owners of UK property has still

not been introduced.

The uprisings in Kazakhstan last

week reflected widespread anger

at former president Nursultan

Nazarbayev ’s three decades of rule

and the vast fortunes amassed by a

privileged few.

Property worth hundreds of mil-

lions of pounds in London and

southern England has already been

identifi ed as bought by Kazakhstan’s

wealthy elite in the past two decades.

The government is now under pres-

sure to fast-track new laws to intro-

duce the register pledged by Cameron.

David Lammy, shadow foreign

secretary , said: “The government

has abjectly failed to get to grips

with the UK’s role in money laun-

dering, corruption and illicit fi nance.

London is the destination of choice

for the world’s kleptocrats looking to

store ill-gotten wealth. It is no good

using tough words against the Putin

regime, or criticising Kazakhstan’s

human rights record, while being a

soft touch for the elites that sustain

and profi t from autocratic regimes.”

There are nearly 90,000 companies

in England and Wales owned offshore

by companies incorporated in secrecy

jurisdictions.

A report entitled The UK’s

Kleptocracy Problem, published last

month by the thinktank Chatham

House, identified 34 properties

bought by the Kazakh ruling elite

from 1998 to 2002 at a cost of about

£530m. John Heathershaw , pro-

fessor of international relations at

Exeter University and lead author of

the report, said: “Most of the prop-

erty is linked to Nazarbayev’s family

or members of the ruling elite that are

close to them.”

Heathershaw said London was a

popular destination for ruling elites

with suspicious wealth because it was

a cosmopolitan and fi nancial hub ,

and it offered the chance to mix with

infl uential fi gures in political, royal

and business circles.

He said: “London has been really

important for the political elite in

Kazakhstan and that includes the

relationships they have developed

with individuals such as Tony Blair

and Prince Andrew.” Blair provided

advice to the Kazakh regime and

Prince Andrew has been close to some

of its wealthiest individuals.

The Kazakh elite’s properties

include Prince Andrew’s marital

home, Sunninghill Park in Berkshire,

bought in 2007 for £15m by oligarch

Timur Kulibayev , the son-in-law of

the former Kazakhstan president.

It also emerged in early 2020

that Nazarbayev’s daughter Dariga

Nazarbayeva and grandson Nurali

Aliyev own property in London worth

at least £80m. The National Crime

Agency issued unexplained wealth

orders, which were dismissed by a

judge who found the NCA had not

proven any link between the purchase

of the homes and criminal funds.

Oliver Bullough, author of

Moneyland, a book which investi-

gates how illicitly gained wealth can

be moved around the world, said

the uprisings in Kazakhstan were

linked to the uninterrupted fl ow of

the country’s wealth into cities such

as London. According to a KPMG

report, 162 people control about half

of Kazakhstan’s total wealth.

Bullough said: “Kazakhstan’s elite

has been able to extract a vast amount

of wealth and leave ordinary people

with very little. And the primary ena-

bler of that extraction ... has been the

UK.”

Ben Cowdock , investigations lead

at Transparency International UK,

said the UK should now be examin-

ing if it can impose sanctions on any

of the ruling elite in Kazakhstan who

may have benefi ted from illicit funds.

He said: “Kazakhstan is a klep-

tocracy and there are high levels of

corruption at the highest echelons.

They’ve taken control of all the coun-

try’s assets and shared them out

among the ruling elite.”

A UK government spokesperson

said: “The government will estab-

lish a new benefi cial ownership reg-

ister of overseas entities that own UK

property, to combat money launder-

ing and achieve greater transparency

in the property market. It is essen-

tial that the register strikes the right

balance between improving trans-

parency and minimising burdens on

legitimate commercial activity. The

government will legislate when par-

liamentary time allows.”

Above left, Jon Ungoed-Thomas

Kazakhstan’s

independence

leader Nursultan

Nazarbayev;

Kassym-Jomart

Tokayev, above

right, is his

handpicked

successor.

ing the most dramatic week in the

young country’s history.

It was a surprising absence from

a politician who has personified

Kazakhstan for the past three dec-

ades. When he stepped down in 2019,

the new capital city he had ordered

created in 1997 was renamed Nur-

Sultan, in his honour. But for all the

excesses of the cult of personality, for

a long time Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstan

was a much savvier autocracy than

those of the other post-Soviet Central

Asian nations.

Many western diplomats had a pos-

itive view of his leadership, despite

the democratic shortcomings, in part

because of the lucrative opportuni-

ties for western businesses the coun-

try provided. “He was able to balance

Russia and China, and other exter-

nal infl uences, and he implemented

some genuine reforms,” said a west-

ern diplomatic source.

Whatever the final outcome of

last week’s turmoil, the images of a

statue to Nazarbayev in the city of

Taldykorgan being pulled down, and

of crowds chanting “Old man, out!”

are likely to fundamentally alter the

legacy he hoped for.

Also at stake is the independent

foreign policy that was one of his

most prized achievements. When,

on Wednesday evening, Tokayev

called for support from the Collective

Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO),

a Russia-led military alliance, the

request was approved within hours.

At a time when all eyes were on the

troops massed close to Russia’s bor-

der with Ukraine , suddenly there was

a different Russian intervention to

contend with.

Both the Kazakh and Russian sides

have insisted the contingent will be

limited in size, scope and duration,

and so far, claims of a Russian occu-

pation seem overblown. But even if

the troops are gone in a few days,

the balance of power in the region is

likely to have been altered irrevocably.

“Nothing comes for free with Putin,

and there will be a quid pro quo,” said

Mallinson.

As attention shifts to the behind-

the-scenes infi ghting and the geopo-

litical implications, some inside the

country are urging that the human

tragedy should not be forgotten.

Yesterday , a group of Kazakh civil

society organisations penned an open

letter to the authorities: “Unrest and

violence have no place at peaceful

demonstrations... We ask the author-

ities to carry out a full investigation of

every part of this tragedy.”