New investor visa rules, OPEC+ tensions on the rise
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev traveled to Moscow on May 8 to attend the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi regime in Germany, which marked the end of World War II. Tokayev attended the Victory Day parade alongside Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and a number of heads of state from the former Soviet Union, among others. Back in Astana, during a May 7 celebration for World War II soldiers, local authorities requested residents through a surveillance drone to close the window from which they were watching the military parade.
Kazakhstan continued to miss the target quota set by the OPEC+ group of oil exporters in April, and In early May, Saudi Arabia reacted by adding volumes into the global market. The measure aimed to send oil prices down and hit Kazakhstan’s revenues. Earlier, energy minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov also said there were no plans to cut oil production in May.
Since May 10, foreigners can apply for Kazakhstan’s new investor visa, the ministry of foreign affairs announced on April 30. The visa is available for “foreign nationals who invest a minimum of $300,000 in the charter capital of Kazakhstan-based companies or in local publicly traded securities.”
The Astana Interdistrict Criminal Court sentenced on April 22 a number of former managers and employees of Astana Bank. The financial institution was stripped of its license in 2018 and Oleg Tokhtarov, its chairman, fled the country. Tokhtarov was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for embezzlement.
The former head of Astana LRT Talgat Ardan was detained in Turkey, the country’s law enforcement said on May 13. Ardan was sentenced in absentia for embezzlement regarding the light rail project still under construction in Kazakhstan’s capital. He now faces extradition to Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s Parliament approved on May 14 measures to transform the Eurasian Development Bank’s Stabilization Fund into a separate organization financed through local currency transfers, in an effort to avoid falling under Western sanctions. Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan are members of the EDB. Russia and Kazakhstan are the main contributors to the Stabilization Fund.
In the first quarter, 17.7% of Kazakhstan’s budget expenditures went towards repaying its outstanding sovereign debt, the ministry of finance reported on May 3. As of April 1, according to the ministry of finance, Kazakhstan’s debt amounted to 33.8 trillion tenge, ($67.2 billion — or 24% of the GDP).
The Vietnamese company Sovico Group renamed the airline Qazaq Air that it purchased this year into Vietjet Qazaqstan on May 6. On May 8, the deputy minister of foreign affairs Alibek Bakayev said that Sovico could also soon become the operator of the airport in Kyzylorda, the capital city of one of the poorest and fastest-growing regions of the country.
The transit of Kazakh coal through Russia increased by 44.5% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, Kazakhstan Railways said on April 30. Around 2.3 million tonnes of Kazakh coal was handled through Russian ports in the Baltic and Black Sea.
In the ongoing trial for the murder of 16-year-old Sherzat Polat, the defendants claimed to have suffered torture during police interrogations. Polat was stabbed to death in October 2024 at his father’s corner shop in Talgar, a town near Almaty. One of the nine defenders is being tried for murder.
Harry Azaryan, a student from Kazakhstan, was detained by Russian authorities in St. Petersburg on May 15. Azaryan is accused of “supporting terrorist actions” and police searched his flat. At least five other students, which Russian state media categorized as “Trotskyists” members of the Worker Power organization, were searched.
Azerbaijan state-backed media said on May 5 that the Russian government has yet to provide the results of its investigation on the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash near Aktau in December 2024, killing 38 people. The plane, en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in the south of Russia, deviated its route across the Caspian Sea and crashed while attempting to land in Kazakhstan. A report from Kazakhstan’s authorities said the plane was hit by “foreign metal objects.”
Note: This edition covers four weeks between April 19 — May 16.
Власть — это независимое медиа в Казахстане.
Поддержите журналистику, которой доверяют.
Мы верим, что справедливое общество невозможно построить без независимой журналистики и достоверной информации. Наша редакция работает над тем чтобы правда была доступна для наших читателей на фоне большой волны фейков, манипуляций и пропаганды. Поддержите Власть.
Поддержать Власть
