Kazakhstan: Opposition Claims Dariga Nazarbayeva Plotting Power Grab

The coali­tion of civ­il soci­ety of the Kazakhstan “Dongelek Ustel” has warned about an alleged coup plot, claim­ing that rep­re­sen­ta­tives of “Old Kazakhstan” con­tin­ue to wield sig­nif­i­cant influ­ence over the coun­try’s domes­tic politics.

The group has released an exten­sive appeal to Kazakhstan’s peo­ple and President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev.

Dariga’s Parallel State

The appeal pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on Dariga Nazarbayeva and her alleged net­works, which the oppo­si­tion claims are lay­ing the ground­work for a pow­er grab.

According to the doc­u­ment, a “deep state” per­sists in Kazakhstan, main­tain­ing con­trol over key infor­ma­tion and eco­nom­ic sec­tors even after the January 2022 events.

‘Old Kazakhstan’ and its rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­tin­ue to occu­py key posi­tions in nation­al com­pa­nies, law enforce­ment agen­cies, fake pub­lic orga­ni­za­tions and con­trolled media, includ­ing social net­works. At the cen­ter of this net­work is Dariga Nazarbayeva. She is con­vinced that the post of President of Kazakhstan belongs to her by right of descent. The attempt to seize pow­er in January 2022 failed due to the mis­takes of the con­spir­a­tors, the cow­ardice of Karim Massimov and the unrea­son­able­ness of her elder­ly father. Now Dariga Nazarbayeva does not trust either her father or old officials,the appeal says.

The oppo­si­tion alleges that Nazarbayeva is devel­op­ing a shad­ow sys­tem fund­ed through com­mer­cial enter­pris­es engaged in mon­ey laundering.

These funds report­ed­ly sup­port con­trolled media out­lets, “pub­lic orga­ni­za­tions,” and sym­pa­thet­ic experts who pro­mote return­ing to “Old Kazakhstan.”

According to the appeal, Nursultan Nazarbayev’s eldest daugh­ter is work­ing to restore pow­er through shad­ow struc­tures that include:

• Media and adver­tis­ing mar­ket control
• Management through fic­ti­tious pub­lic organizations
• Influence over law enforce­ment and gov­ern­ment companies

These schemes appeared on the basis of doc­u­ments that are pub­licly avail­able. We can­not specif­i­cal­ly say that Dariga Nazarbayeva is doing this, but in any case, she is con­nect­ed to her father and the Nazarbayev clan. Perhaps they are fight­ing among them­selves for assets and for the posts that their peo­ple occu­py. But all this leads to the desta­bi­liza­tion of the coun­try, and the inter­ests of the ‘Old Kazakhstan’ are becom­ing increas­ing­ly pro­tect­ed. If we talk about the ‘New Kazakhstan,’ the pro­gram that Toqayev pro­claimed, this is a fight against the old per­son­nel, the old lega­cy, today this is not hap­pen­ing. Because the Nazarbayev fam­i­ly’s peo­ple are sit­ting in the old posts,” said oppo­si­tion mem­ber Serik Medetbekov, who not­ed that some sig­na­to­ries with­in Kazakhstan pre­fer to remain anonymous.

The Company and Organizations

The appeal iden­ti­fies sev­er­al com­pa­nies alleged­ly involved in these activ­i­ties, includ­ing TOO “3 A&T”, DASM Service, Big Idea Group, and 360 Production, which are said to par­tic­i­pate in mon­ey laun­der­ing, pro­pa­gan­da activ­i­ties, and financ­ing fic­ti­tious organizations.

Dariga Nazarbayeva is sup­port­ed by high-rank­ing offi­cials, includ­ing Senate Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev and Imangali Tasmagambetov. The AMANAT par­ty under her con­trol also plays a key role. President Toqayev mis­tak­en­ly believes that the AMANAT par­ty is under his con­trol. This is a mis­con­cep­tion, as is the belief in the pow­er of the KNB under Massimov, which the January events have dis­proved, the appeal states.

Manipulative Instruments

The oppo­si­tion believes that the media and adver­tis­ing mar­ket remain under Nazarbayeva’s control. 

Supposedly, National Media, which con­trols rat­ing mea­sure­ments, serves as a tool for manip­u­lat­ing adver­tis­ing bud­get distribution.

I think that the sen­ti­ment that ‘it was bet­ter under Nazarbayev’ is now strong in Kazakhstan. Because peo­ple, by their men­tal­i­ty, by their cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties, grav­i­tate toward the past. For them, the past rep­re­sents good times. Like peo­ple who grew up in the Soviet Union, they say how good it was there. They no longer remem­ber the queues, or the gang­ster show­downs, or the lack of social mobil­i­ty, they have absolute­ly bright mem­o­ries. And this will only intensify,Medetbekov added.

Moscow Ties

The appeal alleges that Nazarbayeva is lever­ag­ing Russian con­nec­tions to sup­port her polit­i­cal ambi­tions and calls for President Toqayev to inves­ti­gate these activities.

We call on the pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tion, the gov­ern­ment and the par­lia­ment to study the schemes of this shad­ow net­work and take mea­sures to pre­vent a coup d’e­tat. Particular atten­tion is paid to the top­ic of financ­ing. Authoritative com­pa­nies reg­is­tered in Kazakhstan and abroad are believed to serve as instru­ments for the with­draw­al of cap­i­tal and the main­te­nance of ille­gal net­works of influence,states the document.

Medetbekov sug­gests that Toqayev should vet gov­ern­ment cir­cles to remove for­mer loy­al­ists from state positions.

A Response

Kemelbek Oishybayev, chair of JSC “Agency ‘Khabar’ ” and the National Media Association, who was men­tioned in the oppo­si­tion’s state­ment, denied any con­nec­tion to Nazarbayeva:

I am not aware that my name was men­tioned in any state­ments by Dongelek Ustel. I do not know about this NGO. I have nev­er had and do not have any rela­tion to Dariga Nursultanovna. Today, they dropped a clip from one of their videos, where they talk about the activ­i­ties of the National Media Association, and there I saw that the National Media Association is attrib­uted to Dariga Nursultanovna. But I left the post of vice min­is­ter after the January events, in February 2022, and after that I was invit­ed to the National Media Association as chair, the elec­tion took place in March 2022. The Association is engaged in the devel­op­ment of the tele­vi­sion indus­try, mea­sur­ing TV chan­nel rat­ings, unites adver­tis­ing agen­cies and TV chan­nels, a total of 48 orga­ni­za­tions, and in no way has any rela­tion to Dariga Nazarbayeva.

Oishybayev explained that the Association oper­ates trans­par­ent­ly through an expert coun­cil and super­vi­so­ry board com­pris­ing 17 organizations.

And what I saw on the video, I smiled and thought — what non­sense. I don’t see any point in tak­ing it seri­ous­ly or com­ment­ing on it because the infor­ma­tion there is absolute­ly untrue,he added.

He fur­ther clar­i­fied that the orga­ni­za­tion is fund­ed by its mem­bers, includ­ing sig­nif­i­cant chan­nels like “Channel 31”, “Astana,” “Channel 7”, “Khabar,” QAZAQSTAN, and others.

This is some­one’s spec­u­la­tion. This is absolute­ly untrue. I have nev­er had any rela­tions or com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Dariga Nazarbayeva. The activ­i­ties of the asso­ci­a­tion are absolute­ly trans­par­ent, and I do not receive com­pen­sa­tion there,Oishybayev concluded.

Original sto­ry: ORDA:KZ

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov