According to various foreign news services, Richard Hoagland has been nominated by President Bush to replace John Ordway as Ambassador to Kazakhstan. Hoagland is currently serving in the U.S. Embassy to Turkmenistan and was Ambassador to Tajikistan.

Hoagland was nominated as Ambassador to Armenia last year but his nomination was withdrawn in relation to questions of the US acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. The then-Ambassador to Armenia was withdrawn when he gave a speech regarding the genocide and Hoagland’s nomination was stalled and then withdrawn while the Senate debated whether to publically acknowledge the genocide or not.

Ordway has been Ambassador since 2004.

Frank Giustra, the businessman who is making headlines for his alleged deal with Kazakhstan government officials in order to get uranium rights, has put out a press release listing the inaccuracies that the Bloomberg Press Service has made in covering the story. Among the errors Giustra cites:

Bloomberg: Giustra was negotiating with the Kazakhstan government to buy controlling stakes in three uranium mines.

Fact: The negotiations were with private companies, not the government…

Bloomberg: In November, 2005, Giustra flew back to Kazakhstan for another meeting with the President of Kazakhstan to get the uranium deal back on track.

Fact: There was no such meeting.

Bloomberg: Giustra stipulated that funds donated by him or Canadian mining companies to the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, which is aimed at fighting poverty and building sustainable economies in developing countries, be deployed where he does most of his business.

Fact: The work of the initiative is, in fact, global, with a particular focus on helping local economies where mining takes place. In other words, the world’s mining sector is giving something back that can be sustained long after mining is finished. There is no “stipulation” that funds be spent only in countries where Giustra has business interests. In fact, of the several programs being introduced on March 1, only one will be in a country where Giustra is doing business.

Giustra also criticized in general terms the New York Times article which broke the story as being inaccurate. However he does not directly dispute the basic facts that he met once with Nazarbayev and President Clinton, that his company acquired uranium rights in Kazakhstan, or that he has made large donations to Clinton’s charity.

The Bloomberg story, like those in both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, contains errors of fact, uses innuendo, and omits key facts, either intentionally or through a lack of due diligence, to construct an article designed to suggest improprieties in the relationship where none exist.

The head of KazAtomProm in a recent interview also gave a similar response to the effect that something happened, but it was nothing illegal. He alleged that the American journalists who claim impropriety were paid by someone trying to defame Hilary Clinton and her Presidential campaign.

Frank Giustra, the businessman who came to the public light as allegedly getting a boost from President Clinton in order to enter the Kazakhstan uranium market, is defending himself.

From The Globe and Mail article:

Mr. Giustra denied the suggestion that Mr. Clinton had in any way paved the way for the successful deals. Both transactions were well advanced at the time of the meetings and both sets of assets were purchased from private sellers and not the government, he said.

“I have business dealings all over the world. There are two countries where I have had business dealings and have visited with the president - Kazakhstan and Colombia. If people want to draw conclusions, let them. President Clinton has not helped me in any of my business dealings, period. End of story,” he said.

As for donations made to Clinton’s charity, Mr. Giustra says his business goal is to make money in order to give it to charity and there is nothing shady about it. “I’m choosing to give my money away as part of the CGSGI effort and that’s the way I’m going to live my life. People can think whatever they want about it,”

Thanks to Registan.net for pointing me to this article on problems with US AID funding for Central Asia:

Aid for almost every country in the former Soviet Union will be falling in 2008, under the current foreign affairs budget released by the US State Department. Much of the planned US assistance will go toward helping independent-minded states in the region resist Russian efforts to reassert its dominance in the Caspian Basin and elsewhere. Even so, some Washington experts lament the drop-off in aid, and describe the dwindling budgets in recent years as “monuments to weak analysis, inter-agency pettiness, and trite bureaucratic formuli.”

Overall, the budget for the Freedom Support Act, which provides aid to former Soviet states, is $346 million for fiscal year 2009, which actually starts on October 1, 2008. That is down from $396 million in fiscal 2008, and $452 million the year before that.

It’s interesting to note because one of the sponsors of the Freedom Support Act was John McCain, who will likely be the Republican nominee for President. So perhaps the Central Asia crowd should be cheering for McCain who has paid some attention to the region. On the other hand, Barak Obama is widely believed to be more of an internationalist and perceived to have sympathy for Muslim countries, having been raised in Indonesia. Perhaps he will be more willing to dole out aid to developing countries and to sympathize with the common rhetoric of Western democracy balanced with Asian values that is rife throughout this region. Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, seems to have a more shameful link to the region via ex-President Clinton who seems happy to do business deals here to help out his buddies and lend credence to regional leaders by talking to them.

I’d be interested in what you readers think. Which US Presidential candidate is best for Central Asia?

Or Kazakh-gate all over again? This issue is being covered and analyzed well in a number of websites so I’m not sure I have much to add except a bunch of links. When Bill Clinton came to Kazakhstan in 2005 and collected a donation from President Nazarbayev for his HIV/AIDS charitable fund, he may well have been doing some business on the side, assisting a businessman named Frank Giustra invest money in uranium projects in Kazakhstan. Josh Frost at Registan.net points out that getting rights to strategic resources like uranium is not normally very easy, making Bill Clinton’s role as intermediary/power pusher a little “sketchy”.

The New York Times story which broke the potential scandal describes “a sumptuous midnight banquet with Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev” that greeted Clinton and Giustra upon arrival. Not something new businessmen normally get to do.

As The Roberts Report points out, inviting–even paying–big names to come to a country with a less-than-stellar-reputation is not unheard of and the local press eats it up (”Bill Clinton came to our country and ate beshbarmak. Hurrah!). Unfortunately it is also not unheard of for these big influential names to use their draw to help businessmen make deals.

Meanwhile The Daily Kos argues that this story might have an impact on the US Presidential Elections. Good coverage and summary, although one does wish they wouldn’t call it “Borat-gate”.

Even when it has nothing to do with him, Sascha Baron Cohen’s journalist character manages to pop into the news.

US Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi announced Monday that he will retire from the Senate after a long career. Analysts think the Governor may choose Mississippi Representative Chip Pickering as Lott’s replacement until the election which will be on Nov. 4th 2008. If Pickering decides to run, then the big question will clearly be his role in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. No, he wasn’t seen in Washington answering stupid questions presented by the most famous journalist in Kazakhstan. He was caught on film in a Pentecostal revival attended by Borat where he was cheered by the crowd as he swore to love Christ forever. The Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and according to the Huffington Post, so was Representative Pickering.

In all serious I don’t see this scene causing Pickering too many problems, but it is amazing how Cohen manages to insert himself into the news!

Three Kazakhs out of four allegedly held have been released from Guantanomo Bay:

The three Kazakhs arrived in their Central Asian homeland on Saturday and were met by relatives who took them home, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov.

Omarov said the three would not face investigation and charges “because their release means that they had been cleared of all suspicions of having terror links.'’

He gave no further details on the three men.

But, using legal records and Pentagon documents, The Miami Herald has identified the three men as:

• Ihlkham Battayev, 34, who had been incorrectly identified in Pentagon documents as an Uzbek citizen.

• Abdullah Tohtasinovich Magrupov, 23.

• Yakub Abahanov, age unknown.

Omarov said the Kazakh government was working on the release of the fourth and last Kazakh citizen being held at Guantánamo who was captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban regime and al Qaeda.

Pentagon records identify him as Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev, 23.

According to lists maintained by the Washington Post here, the Kazakhs were not charged by military commissions.

In terms of what the Kazakhs were doing in Guantanomo, there are a few sources: (more…)

On the eve of Nazarbayev’s visit to the White House on Sept. 29th, speculation and analysis abounds as to what the issues on the table will be. The White House site has a nice list:

Democracy Promotion:
Kazakhstan Neweurasia has put up a slighting cartoon from The Economist. This is one big issue. And one that Nazarbayev may be asked by the reporters. Since it is not common for him to personally address reporters in Kazakhstan, nor for government officials to comment on anything except in formal, planned press-conferences, this is where the interesting bit occurs. We will remember when Condoleezza Rice visited Kazakhstan, and allegedly, Nazarbayev was stopped by her before he walked off the stage without taking questions. Rice also recounted that after the press conference, in which Andrea Koppel asked the President if he were a dictator, Nazarbayev asked her what he should do with such accusations. She advised that he answer them. So I am personally waiting to hear answers to questions about the Sarsenbayev trial, as well as a repeat of Ms. Koppel’s question.

One subheading here is the bid for the OSCE Presidency. Committees are busily meeting to put into place democratic reforms to make the bid more viable.

During the session, members of the state commission will discuss the questions regarding the work of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs concerning the course of promotion of Kazakhstan presidency in OSCE in 2009. The special representative of Kazakhstan in OSCE, the first Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Rakhat Aliyev will make a report on the topic.

One interesting tidbit from this is that Aliyev, also son-in-law of the President, in his report claimed that Kazakhstan is the sole candidate for the Presidency in 2009, though Reuters claims that Greece and Latvia are also putting forth bids.

Adam Kesher of Neweurasia covers the OSCE issue well.

Aliyev has recently been the source of some fun and mockery due to his article on whether Kazakhstan should be a monarchy of Kazakhstan. While he claims that constitutional monarchies are more democratic than republic—

[Aliyev] concluded, “We speak here solely and exclusively of a constitutional monarchy, a liberal monarchy, and however paradoxical it might sound, a democratic one, with developed and really independent institutions of power — parliament, government, independent judicial system based on the rule of law, and a responsible and independent press.
From Euraisanet.org

–many are laughing that he wants to be Prince! The opposition is noting that if one of them printed an article like this, they and the editor of the newspaper would be in jail!

Energy Diversification
This gets at the heart of the question of how much oil their really is in the Caspian Sea, whether Kazakhstan owns a lot of it, and whether they can get it out without turning the Caspian into an environmental disaster.

But it also turns on civilian nuclear energy, which Kazakhstan is developing. Politically, Kazakhstan, is attending the 50th International atomic energy session. And not only has the nation has not given up economic or diplomatic ties to Iran, in a stand of support one assumes for nations that want to develop nuclear power, but, Nazarbayev has addressed the comparison head on in his piece in Le Monde in July, My Advice to Iran. Essentially, he argues for the end of nuclear weapons, but for the world to leave nations alone in developing nuclear power.

Expanding Prosperity
Has been the subject of a number of high level visits from the US to Kazakhstan, especially in the Department of Agriculture.

The USA is the largest foreign investor in Kazakhstan. The total amount of investments into the economy of our country exceeds $12 billion that makes one third of all foreign investments into the economy of the Republic,
Quoted by Kazakhstan Today

And of course Kazakhstan wants help in becoming one of the 50 most competitive countries in the world and diversifying its economy. As much fun as is being made of the US for playing nice with oil-rich Kazakhstan, we note that Kazakhstan is being pretty nice to the investment-rich USA, as well.

Finally, of course the topic on everyone’s mind, except Bush and Nazarbayev: Borat and PR!. And enough said about that!

There’s an American Perceptions of Kazakhstan survey being put out by the Embassy in the US. It’s basically a series of questions about Kazakhstan to see if Americans know the right answers, plus a few questions about level of interest. I was slightly put off by certain questions that seemed to be more opinion-oriented admist the factual questions. “How big is Kazakhstan?” followed by “Is Kazakhstan open to foreign investment?” I am slightly afraid the results will pop up in an article about the ignorance or lack thereof of Americans regarding Kazakhstan. It is also clearly oriented to Americans who have never been to Kazakhstan so I wasn’t sure what to do with the question, “Would you travel to Kazakhstan?” At that moment it would be impossible.

All That’s Leftsky is a poli-sci major at the University of Louisville has apparently resolved to write a letter a week to Congress either pro- or anti- a bill. Yesterday’s was S. RES. 293, 27 October 2005 which supports a free and fair election in Kazakhstan.
His reasons include the strategic resources and growing economic influence of the nation, and also the potential ripple effects on other nations badly in need of democratization, including Russia (this will warm the Slavic heart) and of course it’s geopolitical location between Russia and China.

The resolution itself can be found here: Calling for a free and fair presidential election in the Republic of Kazakhstan (more…)