Ex-minister of culture asks president Tokayev for help

Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, former minister of culture in Kazakhstan and the current head of the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan has published his video appeal to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The ex-minister reminded the president about his merits to the country, said that his only goal is to contribute to the prosperity of Kazakhstan and asked to stop inspections in the museum.

As Mukhamediuly noted, several years ago there was an incident with the movie “Fenix.” The government allocated significant funds for the film production but its director Talgad Zhanybekov embezzled about $3 million. He was arrested and later acknowledged his fault. Now Mukhamediuly insists that someone wants to retaliate against him.

On May 16, some Kazakhstani media outlets reported that the Anticorruption Agency searched the National Museum. However, the agency refused to comment.

Arystanbek Mukhamediuly was born on February 11, 1963, in the Almaty region. He graduated from Almaty State Conservatory in 1986, the National School of Public Administration in 1997 and Kazakh National University named after Al Farabi in 2001.

In 1984 he started working as an artist in Kazakh State Philharmonic. Also, he served as a vice minister of culture and information, chief inspector of domestic policy in the president’s office and head of the Kazakh National Academy of Arts. From 2014 to 2019 Mukhamediuly worked as minister of culture and sport. In 2019 he was appointed as head of the National Museum.