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The biggest Russian airline Aeroflot has launched regular flights from Sochi to Armenia, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, according to the Interfax-Kazakhstan newswire.

As the company said, these routes have been launched to serve transit passengers who travel from the main airline’s airports including Moscow (Sheremetyevo), Saint Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk via the international airport of Sochi.

From Sochi passengers will be able to travel by another airline called «Russia,» which is going to conduct all further flights for Aeroflot.

At the beginning of March Aeroflot canceled all international flights except direct flights to Minsk, Belarus. This decision followed a...

The town of Ust-Kamenogorsk is the center of the nonferrous-metals industry in Kazakhstan. It is located at the mouth of Irtysh and Ulba Rivers. This story by The Real Kazakhstan, a project by the Kursiv edition and Chevron, is going to talk about the town of Ust-Kamenogorsk, its way of life and problems.

Over the period from 2021 to 2023, the town is going to earn $137.7 million while its estimated costs during this period won’t exceed $114.1 million. According to the local administration, Ust-Kamenogorsk ranked first in Kazakhstan in terms of industrial output, third in terms of agriculture, construction...

The town of Ayagoz was established more than 90 years ago. The current name of the town is the same as the nearby river. However, the settlement that was established nearby in the tsarist imperial period was called Sergiopol. During the Soviet times, the town was called Ayaguz. In 1994 it was renamed Ayagoz, which is the correct spelling of the Kazakh name of the river.

The modern town was established in 1931 near the village of Mamyrsu as the Soviet authorities initiated the massive construction of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway. Among many other buildings in the town, there were telegraph...

Kazakhstan and its partners have done an incredible job creating TITR. Amid the crisis in Ukraine, these efforts may pay back even though the maximal volume of transit is quite small now and doesn’t exceed 200,000 containers a year.

In overdrive

The crisis in Ukraine has turned into a crisis in transport and logistics for all of Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states used to rely on export and import routes via Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Now the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) is the only alternative transport corridor to the West.

During the past couple...

In the fourth national address, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has announced a plan of moderate political reforms. He also mentioned new measures aimed at stabilizing the national economy and ordered the creation of new administrative divisions.

No longer a superpresidency

The part of the address devoted to political reforms was the most intense. Right after the January events, President Tokayev promised to present a complex of new political reforms that may facilitate political competition in the country.

«“We need specific actions to change the political model of Kazakhstan. This is necessary for the further development of the country. We...

Most recently, Kazakhstan’s banks reported a growing number of requests from Russian financial entities, companies and individuals who want to set up a bank account in Kazakhstan. This information has been confirmed by several sources familiar with the issue.

About ten Russian banks have been sanctioned by western countries. VTB, Bank Otkritie, Sovkombank, Promsvyazbank and Novikombank, all of which were included in the SDN list, have faced the most severe sanctions. Correspondent accounts of the Russian Sber have also been sanctioned by American and British authorities. To avoid new limitations in work Russian entrepreneurs and bankers are now looking at...

As President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at the meeting with both chambers of the national parliament, Kazakhstan is going to embrace a new political system with strong parliament instead of the superpresidency the country relies on currently.

«We need specific actions to change the political model of Kazakhstan. This is necessary for the further development of Kazakhstan. We have to make a transition from the superpresidency to a presidential form of government with a strong parliament. This system will provide us with a good balance between public institutions and facilitate sustainable development of the country,» Tokayev said.

The president also stated...

While attending a joint session of the parliament President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev suggested simplifying the process of political party registration.

«We have to decrease the registration qualification for parties fourfold from 20,000 to 5,000. The threshold of a minimal quantity of party supporters in regions must be decreased from 600 t0 200 people. And only 700 individuals instead of 1,000 will be needed to establish a political party,» said the president.

Tokayev also noted that the government is going to increase the time frame for founding congresses and creating representative offices in regions. The president believes that these measures will promote...

The Financial Monitoring Agency has detained Kairat Boranbayev, one of the richest businessmen in Kazakhstan, reported Kaztag.kz and Vlast.kz citing the law enforcement agency.

However, the agency didn’t confirm this when it responded to the Kursiv.media edition’s request. «There is no official information. We will inform you once we have this information,» the agency said.

Boranbayev is a relative of the older daughter of the former president Nazarbayev. In 2013 Aisultan Nazarbayev, younger son of Dariga Nazarbayeva married Alima Boranbayeva, daughter of Kairat Boranbayev. In 2020 Aysultan died.

Kairat Boranbayev was born September 22, 1966. In 1989 he graduated from...

Head of the Almaty region Kanat Bozumbayev has suggested transferring his official residence in the town of Zharkent near the Chinese border to a rehabilitation center for children, the governor’s press service reported.

At the meeting with residents of the Panfilov district, Bozumbayev said that he’s going to give away his official residence in the town. «There is my residence in Zharkent. I don’t need it. There are a lot of nice guests houses and cafes with lovely food here. So, I am going to pass over this residence to a children’s rehabilitation center,» he said.

According to the official...

According to Finance Minister Erulan Zhamaubayev, the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance are going to make adjustments to the accounting rate of the US dollar for 2022, inflation corridor and other parameters of the state budget.

«Currently, along with the National Bank, we are going to make adjustments to the state budget this year including all those parameters such as the accounting rate of the dollar and the inflation corridor. We are going to discuss these issues this week. This figure (accounting rate of the U.S. dollar) will be clear once the state budget is formed,» he said.

The chief sanitary doctor of Kazakhstan Ayzhan Esmagambetova has signed a new rule that allows education entities in yellow and green zones with few or no new COVID-19 cases to soften anti-epidemiological measures.

For example, in all public and private educational organizations pupils are no longer required to keep social distancing and measure their body temperature while entering school.

From now on all these measures and the mobile app Ashyq aren’t mandatory for schools and universities.

However, the government noted that if the sanitary and epidemiological situation worsens, it can once again roll out the Ashyq mobile app, social distancing...

The risk of technical default in Russia is quite real. When the West targets the foreign currency assets of the Bank of Russia, it wants this to happen. However, experts believe that this won’t ruin the Russian economy or severely hit Kazakhstan. The exchange rate will continue to decline though because of sanctions. Aydarkhan Kusainov thinks that the exchange rate between the Russian ruble and Kazakhstan tenge isn’t well balanced. 

New low

According to Kusainov, even if Russia deаfaults it wouldn’t have a severe impact on the Russian economy as all possible sanctions have already been announced.

«Sovereign...

Today, on March 14, the first part of the humanitarian aid from Kazakhstan has been sent to Ukraine; the second part will be sent tomorrow, according to the Ministry of Health. The cargo is set to arrive in Katowice, Poland as local organizations which are involved in the distribution of humanitarian aid in Ukraine agreed to take the aid.

The weight of the aid from Kazakhstan is 28.2 tons in total. This cargo is going to include 17 different types of medicines including antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and antihypertensive drugs.

Kazakhstan is sending this humanitarian aid to fulfill President Tokayev’s order and...

According to the 24.kg website citing the Border Service under the State Committee of National Security of Kyrgyzstan, delegations from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have agreed to refrain from using their weapons on the common border.

Both sides have discussed a range of issues linked to border security. They have paid particular attention to the issue of prevention combat incidents on the border that the two countries share.

As a result, both sides agreed to prohibit their soldiers from using weapons except on occasions when such use of weapons is reasonable from a legal point of view.

Moreover, heads of Tajik...

The former head of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee Karim Masimov faces 17 years in prison, said Berik Asylov, prosecutor general of the country.

During the plenary meeting of Mazhilis, the lower chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament Asylov told deputies that the former chairman of the National Security Committee is accused of committing a range of serious crimes including treason and faces a punishment of 17 years in prison. This is the maximal punishment for this kind of crime. However, only a court can decide for sure whether Masimov is guilty and what kind of punishment he should face, Asylov noted.

Masimov...

Kazakhstan law enforcement officials have detained Kairat Satybaldyuly, nephew of the former president Nursultan Nazarbayev. He is accused of abuse of power and embezzlement in Kazakhtelecom, according to the Anti-Corruption Service.

He has been taken into custody.

«The police are trying to investigate whether Kairat Satybaldyuly was connected with other crimes that undermine national security. The investigation is ongoing. According to article 201 of the Criminal Code, we can’t reveal any information about the course of the investigation,» the agency said.

Kairat Satybaldy was born in 1970 in Almaty. His father Satybaldy was an older brother of Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kairat...

Air Astana, a national air carrier in Kazakhstan reported that it has suspended all flights to Russia. The reason for that move is the withdrawal of insurance coverage for commercial flights to, from and over the Russian Federation, the company’s press service said.

Air Astana is working with the government of Kazakhstan to solve this problem in order to be able to restore flights as soon as possible, the company added.

Those passengers who can’t use their tickets to get on board can return tickets for a 100% refund.

Earlier this week Air Astana reported that it had already stopped...

In official responses to the request from the Kursiv edition, Sberbank Kazakhstan and Alfa Bank said that they do not plan to leave Kazakhstan’s market while VTB said that only the headquarters in Moscow can decide whether its subsidiary should leave the country or stay. 

While responding to a question of whether Alfa-Bank is going to leave Kazakhstan, the bank said that its business on the local market doesn’t depend on Russia and the bank won’t sell its business here.

The bank noted that last year its ROE was 29% and capital adequacy was 16.6% which is much higher than...

The moment Russia launched its «military operation» against Ukraine was the moment when people in this country started to face a new reality. Since February 22, 2,778 sanctions have been imposed on Russia because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, many citizens in Russia find themselves amid discussions on social media about what country to move to. Kazakhstan is one of the options people have discussed. According to Ayman Zhusupova from Eurasian Center for People Management (ECPM) this migration to Kazakhstan is likely to be temporary.

She believes that wealthy Russians would rather choose Dubai than Kazakhstan.

On March 9, 2022, the National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to keep the base rate at the level of 13.5% with a percentage corridor of +/-1 p.p. The rate of standing facilities is 14.5% for liquidity provision and 12.5% for liquidity withdrawal.

The National Bank noted that the decision to keep the base rate at the same level reflects the current reaction of the regulator on increasing geopolitical risks and the risk of accelerating the inflation rate. However, the National Bank has some room for tightening monetary policy further if the external or internal macroeconomic situation worsens. 

In February...

Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi said that Russia has no territorial claims to Kazakhstan. He also noted that the foreign ministry won’t file an official note of protest to Russia because of Zyuganov’s statement.

«During the official visit of our president to Moscow, the top Russian officials have confirmed that Russia has no territorial claims to Kazakhstan,» said Tleuberdi.

This comment followed the statement by Gennady Zyuganov, a prominent Russian politician who called on the Russian government to «liberate Russian speaking people in North Kazakhstan.» Even though he made this statement two months ago during the January events in...

As of March 9, 2022, one Russian ruble costs 4.16 Kazakhstan tenge. Since the beginning of the year, the Russian currency has lost 27.8% of its value. This is not a record though. Over the period from December 2014 to August 2015, the official exchange rate of the Russian ruble dropped from five tenge to 2.8-3.7 tenge per ruble. That decline was directly linked to the devaluation of the ruble and the intention of the National Bank of Kazakhstan to keep the parity between the two currencies.

Amid sharp devaluation of the ruble and quite a strong tenge, the real...

One of the anti-crisis measures Kazakhstan authorities may apply is increasing the base rate of the National Bank. This is a contradictory decision because in the short term this might be an obstacle for the regulator’s policy to keep inflation and exchange rate under control. Timur Turlov, CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC) explains why the base rate increase might not be such a good idea at the moment.

– Mr. Turlov, how you would describe the current economic situation in Kazakhstan after western sanctions have been imposed on Russia?

– What we’ve seen today is Russia becoming more...