KAZAKHSTAN: LIFE ON THE STEPPE, MARCH 7 - 13, 2009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 000444 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON SOCI SENV KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: LIFE ON THE STEPPE, MARCH 7 - 13, 2009 ASTANA 00000444 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) This is another in a series of weekly cables drawn mostly from public media, as well as think-tank, NGO, and opposition web-sites, selected to show the diversity of life in Kazakhstan, and information about it available to citizens of Kazakhstan. Our goal is to choose what might interest and be of use to various end-users in Washington and -- especially -- to provide a more complex view from the other side of the world, illustrating the vitality (and sometimes the quirkiness) of discourse available to citizens of Kazakhstan. KAZAKHSTANI REQUESTING BACK NATIONAL HERO'S HEAD ¶2. (U) In an open letter to President Nazarbayev, several dozen members of Kazakh intelligentsia reportedly requested the President's help in facilitating the return of the head of Kenesary Khan from Russia. For more than 160 years, the head of the last great Kazakh khan has been on display in various museums in Russia, and local patriots find it's time to bring it "home." So far, all requests have been refused -- first by Tsarist Russian Emprie, then by the Communist Soviet Union, and now by the Russian Federation as well. ¶3. (U) Kenesary Khan has a prominent place in the history of Kazakhstan. He was the last khan to be acknowledged by all three Kazakh hordes, and he led the last revolt against Russian armies in today's Kazakhstan. In 1847, Kenesary Khan led his troops -- badly depleted as more and more of his compatriots decided to distance themselves from the warring khan to escape the wrath of Russia's army -- into what became his final battle. Fighting the rival Kokand khanate, most of Kenesary's men were killed, and the khan himself taken prisoner. Subsequently, in a classic Central Asian fashion of the time, he was beheaded and his head was sent as a souvenir to the Russian tsar in St. Petersburg. ¶4. (U) As a Kazakh freedom fighter, Kenesary Khan was off limits for almost 150 years, as both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union tried to keep any sign of nationalistic tendencies in check. A paragraph in a Soviet "History of the Kazakh SSR" described Kenesary Khan as follows: "During 1837-47, he lead the reactionary feudal-monarchist movement, aimed at Kazakhstan's secession from Russia. He established a cruel, despotic rule (in Kazakhstan)." Since independence, however, Kenesary Khan's status as a hero in Kazakh literature and press has quickly risen. Today, a monument to Kenesary Khan can be seen on the embankment of the Ishim river in Astana, and one of the capital's main downtown streets carries his name as well. KAZAKHSTANI "BABUSHKA" THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD? ¶5. (U) Sakhan Dosova, a Kazakh "babushka" living on the outskirts of Karaganda, will turn 130 years old this March -- or so she claims. Dosova, who lives with her 42-year old niece, was "discovered" by accident during this year's population census. Dosova herself was ready to share the secrets of her long life: "Simply, I have never taken any medicine or any pills. When I was sick, I drank herbs, something you would find outdoors. I don't eat sweets, but do like cheese and yogurt. We need to be happy in our lives, only then we won't notice the years going by." Claiming to be born on March 27, 1879, she gave birth to ten children, the last of who was born when she turned 64. Three of her children are still alive; her eldest living son is 74 while the younger daughter just turned 65. The national census reportedly revealed 35 other people older than 100 years in the Karaganda region. While census officials claim that all available social and demographic data have confirmed Dosova's age, the official longevity record still belongs to French Zhanna-Louisa Kalman who passed away in 1997 at the age of 122. (NOTE: It is highly likely that Dosova has "stolen" the identity of a parent or grandparent. Similar longevity claims in Abkhazia have involved such identity theft. The age of Dosava's children indicate that she is most likely a nonagenarian, not about to turn 130. END NOTE.) TRASH MOUNTAINS "EMBELISH" KAZAKHSTAN'S BUSINESS CAPITAL ¶6. (U) Mountains of trash "embelish" the urban landscape of Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty. Whose fault is it? Why have ad-hoc landfills become an integral part of the city scenery? "Karavan," a weekly newspaper, posed these questions to Yegor ASTANA 00000444 002.2 OF 002 Tarkinskiy, a health department official, as he accompanied the reporters on a tour of Almaty's urban "landfills." Tarkinskiy, acknowledging the problem, blamed the disrespectful attitude of residents towards the environment and the lack of an enforcement mechanism that would permit punishing scofflaws. Tarkinskiy's chilling examples often contained both of these elements: "As I walk along the street, I see a young boy carrying a bag of trash and throwing it into a drainage ditch on the side of the street, even though there are trash bins right around the corner. I grab him by his hand: 'What are you doing? Aren't you ashamed?' But then his parents, who are walking behind him, are already all over me: 'Our son will throw the trash wherever he wants to.' And as a health department official, I cannot do anything besides lecturing to them." And what can the city do to change this? Not much, says Tarkinskiy. "If the people pollute their own environment and are ready to live surrounded by trash, no one will help them." NUMBER OF KAZAKHSTANI BILLIONNAIRES DROPS BY HALF ¶7. (U) The number of Kazakhstani billionaires in the Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's richest people has fallen from eight to four. Those who dropped from the list were: Vladimir Kim, a major shareholder in London stock exchange-listed Kazakhmys Plc, a copper mining group; Timur and Dinara Kulibayev, majority shareholders in Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan's third largest bank (Dinara is also the daughter of President Nazarbayev); Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, the controlling shareholder of Kazkommertsbank, the second largest bank in the country; and Bulat Utemuratov, former owner of ATF Bank and a close confidante of President Nazarbayev who was previously head of the management side of the Presidential Administration. The three controlling shareholders of the Eurasian Group, an industrial conglomerate whose crown jewel is Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) -- Aleksander Mashkevich, Patokh Chodiev, and Alijan Ibragimov -- are the only three Kazakhstanis who retained their billionaire status from last year, with each having $1.2 billion in assets at present. Bakhytbek Bayseitov, the main shareholder and chairman of Bank CenterCredit, is the sole Kazakhstani newcomer to the list with a net worth of $1 billion. JOURNALISTS PAID WITH COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY ¶8. (U) Several journalists working for Kazakhstani dailies "Liter" and "Aikyn" reported that they received their salaries in counterfeit currency. The journalists found this out the hard way during their weekend shopping when local merchants refused to accept their money. "Several journalists only learned at the local markets that their money was counterfeit. The vendors discovered (the counterfeit bills) with the help of Chinese-made devices," one of the affected journalists told the weekly "Respublika." Armanzhan Baitasov, the general director of Nur-Media holding which took over the two newspapers this year, confirmed the incident but refused to speculate on the guilty party. "Here only an investigation will help. We can only put our hope on our law enforcement authorities." HOAGLAND