Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. · ·Oct. 12, 2004

TRADITION -- Keeping with the tradition of his fellow third-world dictators, Kazakh strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev won a decisive victory in last month's parliamentary elections, according to an announcement by his hand-picked Central Elections Commission. His Otan (Fatherland) Party received 54.5% of the seats in the lower chamber of the Majilis, reported Interfax news agency. Otan won seven of the 10 seats allocated on the basis of overall votes for a given party, and 35 of the 67 single-seat constituencies, giving it 42 out of 77 seats in the lower house. But that's not all. With a single exception, the rest of the seats went to a party led by the dictators favorite daughter several other small parties of Nazarbayev loyalists. Only one seat in the 77 member parliament went to an opposition party, Ak Zohl. http://www.interfax.com/com?item=Kaz&pg=0&id=5760324&req=

TEHRAN, ASTANA COZYING UP -- Kazakhstan sees a major role for Iran in the development of the Central Asian republic's oil industry. The two countries are discussing exporting Caspian oil via Iran, Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov said at a meeting with Iran's Commerce Minister Mohammad Shariat-Madari, reported Interfax news agency. Akhmetov said Kazakhstan is looking at shipping oil from its Caspian Sea ports by rail thru Iran; relations between the two counties "are developing quite well," he added. Kazakhstan is already delivering oil in a swap arrangement, whereby it delivers oil by tanker to the Iranian port of Neka and receives in exchange the equivalent at the Iranian port of Kharq in the Persian Gulf. The deepening alliance between the Islamic extremist regime in Tehran and the moderates of Astana is a cause of concern in Washington, which is trying to isolate the ayatollahs and pressure them to end their nuclear weapons program. http://www.interfax.com/com?item=Kaz&pg=0&id=5759930&req, http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20041004193142.shtml

WHAT A SHOCK! -- Only the terminally naпve will be surprised to read the headline in the Washington Times: "Nazarbayev to seek another term." It seems like the Kazakh dictator wants to be president for life, to the amazement of none. "Yes, the president wants to run for the 2006 elections," his political secretary, Ermukhamet Yertysabayev, told a group of foreign reporters, according to the UPI. Nazarbayev, 64, is said to be in good health physically and politically. He has successfully barred any potential challengers from getting on the ballot, and he just tightened his grip on his puppet parliament (see above). But he is taking steps to prepare for his retirement -- he has enacted laws giving him lifetime immunity from prosecution for any crime in office, and he is grooming his oldest daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, to succeed him. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040915-093122-9005r.htm

CAVIAR EMPTOR -- It's bye bye beluga, at least for the next year or so, thanks to a United Nations agency which has ordered all caviar exports from the Caspian halted. The problem is rampant poaching and a shrinking sturgeon population in the Caspian, which produces about 80% of the treasured delicacy that sells for up to $2,000 a pound in the United States, the biggest customer, reports the Washington Times. The stock of Caspian caviar on shelves around the world today is at least a year old, and it has a shelf life of about 18 months. The Times reported that the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), which sets export quotas for caviar-bearing sturgeon, set quotas at zero until the Caspian countries -- Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan -- crack down on poachers and stabilize the sturgeon population. Last year's legal exports were 350,000 pounds of beluga, serruga and osetra caviar. Russia and Kazakhstan are the main culprits, the CITES report says, noting that poachers in Kazakhstan pay off local law enforcement officials and work undisturbed. 100 pounds of a beluga female's roe is work $4,000 to the poacher, it noted. http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040915-094416 7935r.htm

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