According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, there are up to 245 cases of foreign firms discriminating against Kazakhstan citizens.

“Discrimination against Kazakh citizens can be observed both at the stage of signing individual labour contracts and during the entire employment process - while exercising the right to safe working conditions, the right to conclude a collective agreement freely, as well as the rights for rest and payment,” Kushkaliyev said.

In all, 127 warrants have been issued by the Prosecutor General and initiated 245 cases. Investigations have been carried out since the beginning of this year. So far 22 licenses have suspended and 5 revoked from foreign companies.

For example, Dongil High Vill Co., a Korean construction company which is building an elite housing complex in Astana, is paying local accountants over $5000 less than foreign colleagues, according to the Prosecutor General. It is true that foreign employees often receive equivalent to levels of their home country. They also often get a stipend for rent and another one to travel home and bring possessions over. However, a $5000 difference is pretty extreme. That more than covers rent of a super-elite apartment and two or three flights home to Korea.

Gazeta.kz also reports that ArcelorMittal Temirtau is ordered to decease age discrimination in hiring people. Apparently, the Human Resources Director of the company said that the company only hires women under 40 years of age and men under 45 years in a media source. Age discrimination is illegal in Kazakhstan, although it is not uncommon for employees to specify age-requirements in job advertisements or for job-wanted classifieds to include personal information like age.

Of course, ArcelorMittal is also under investigation for possibly violating safety regulations after two explosions in two years at their mine in Temirtau. Whether the age-discrimination charge is serious enough for the Prosecutor to follow up on it alone, or whether it is being used to bring pressure on an already besieged company, is unknown. But considering the tragic loss of so many Kazakhstan miners, I have no problem with the government being a bit heavy-handed if there is evidence of violations.

In March, I wrote about an interesting factoid that I stumbled across: only 6% of registered websites on the .kz domain actually have content. The rest appear to be held by domain traders who hope to sell them to interested parties.

For fun, I had tried to guess what .kz domains might be unoccupied and hit on Cool.kz and Welcome.kz. I puzzled over the meaning of two other reserved domains: UCB.kz and CRE.kz. Well, recently the owner of those domains, Ruslan Sadykov left a comment on that post explaining what these acronyms could mean:

UCB.KZ it’s (for example) UNICREDITBANK.KZ (Italian Financial Group, that is going to buy one of KZ banks)… or… it can be used for United Colors of Benetton

CRE.KZ - it’s a domain name (for example) to be used by Capital Real Estate… or Caspian Real Estate… and so on…

My curiosity was piqued so I contacted him and asked him a couple of questions about domain trading in Kazakhstan. (more…)

Sorry that once again this blog went through a dry spell. No sooner had I returned from Mongolia than I was deluged with work on a new assignment. The past two or three weeks have been heavy with news.

Most notably, Rakhat Aliyev most definitely does read the Wall Street Journal In fact, in a recent interview he outlined detailed allegations of corruption involving the President. As The Registan points out, none of the scandals he invokes are new. But the level of detail he provides is. And the fact that he provides alleged documents proving his claim. While Josh speculates on Aliyev’s motivation, the WSJ believes Aliyev might be seeking US protection–if he has information useful to the US and can prove that he is at risk of harassment or assassination, US security might be willing to offer him protection. Or at least, the bigger a noise he makes, the more noise his disappearance would make–providing a disincentive if anyone wants to get rid of him. That of course gives Aliyev motivation to provide false evidence or exaggerate what documents he does have. Adam Kesher at Neweuraisa makes another good point. Aliyev apparently produced blank ballots from the 1999 Election claiming that they were given to him to stuff boxes. Well, that doesn’t say much about Aliyev’s innocence, does it?

The other big scandal regarding lobbyist Stephen Payne is being very well covered and I have no insights to add. Check out:

• The Roberts Report for excellent and clear explanation and links to documents and primary sources
• The Registan has the video of Payne recommending that Akayev make a donation to the Bush Presidential Library if he wants access to powerful people *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*
  And this just in:
• from the Times UK
  

  In a covertly recorded video Payne appeared to confirm that he had been instrumental in getting a UN certificate for Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan.

  The document is not a passport but according to UN spokesman it confers “privileges which are akin to those of representatives of governments” on the bearer when travelling abroad.

  In practice this means he or she is less likely to be impeded at airports by customs or other regulatory bodies.

  Of course whether his claim is true or whether he was bragging to a new client is something for the courts to decide.

  Tomorrow I’ll write about the good news, I promise! There are a number of heartwarming stories out about Kazakhstan and even a few stories that make the government look really good!

A Momentary Relapse of Reason is a brand new blog by an American who’s been living in Almaty for the past year. It looks like it will be a good place to get foreign reactions to life in Kazakhstan. Check out the post on Astana where the author makes a key point that the Left Bank, while lovely, is devoid of people, making it feel like a movie set rather than a city.

Haven’t posted in a while because I took a trip to Mongolia last week. Of course nothing casts a pall on travel plans like political protest that ends with the burning of the leading political party’s building and sacking of the nearby Culture Palace. Assured by my friend in Ulaan Baatar and by various Mongolian blogs that the protests were a one-time deal and that the streets were safe I went ahead and got on the plane anyway.
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