KAZAKHSTAN: KOSTENAI, THE WHEAT AND SLAVIC HEARTLAND OF

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 000959

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARMENT FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, ECA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON EAGR ENRG SCUL SOCI KPAO KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: KOSTENAI, THE WHEAT AND SLAVIC HEARTLAND OF
KAZAKHSTAN

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1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: On May 24-26, the Charge d'Affaires visited
Kostanai -- a northern city of 250,000 people located in a heavily
agricultural area -- to attend a concert by visiting American jazz
musicians and to open Kazakhstan's ninth American Corner. Kostanai
is Kazakhstan's largest wheat producing region and the only oblast
with an Akim (Governor) of Slavic Heritage. The Charge also met
with Kostanai Akim Sergey Kulagin, toured a local school and art
gallery, visited with Peace Corps volunteers and alumni of
U.S.-sponsored exchange programs, and enjoyed an immense display of
Kazakhstani hospitality. The Charge's trip was the first ever visit
by a high-level embassy official to Kostanai, and local officials
were keen to put their best foot forward. END SUMMARY.

MEETING WITH KOSTENAI AKIM


3. (SBU) Kostanai Oblast Akim Sergey Kulagin opened the meeting
with the Charge by noting that the people of Kostanai love jazz. He
said he hoped that the Charge had had an opportunity to hear
Kostanai's professional musicians firsthand. Kulagin said that his
first experience with the United States had been in 1994, when he
signed an agreement for technical exchange in the area of
agriculture, and that he had visited the United States last year.
He stressed that agricultural cooperation and trade -- particularly
related to chicken legs -- was "very successful."


4. (SBU) Turning to the topic of the upcoming Foreign Investors'
Council meeting, Kulagin said it would take place in Kostanai
because "President Nazarbayev trusts us." He stated that he hoped
the meeting would draw the attention of foreign investors to
Kostanai oblast. Kulagin noted that one of his oblast's biggest
projects is a brown coal field and said he hoped that investors
would soon construct a power station.


5. (SBU) The Charge replied that the idea of a power station was a
good one, but that coal technology should be as "green" as possible.
He suggested that U.S.-Kazakhstani ventures in areas such as wind
and solar power could be fruitful and noted that Foreign Minister
Tazhin had recently met with Secretary of Energy Chu. The Charge
also stressed that the United States would like to see all of
Central Asia united in one common energy network. (COMMENT: The
following day, the oblast web-site had added a notation on the
average number of sunny days per year. END COMMENT.)


6. (SBU) Kulagin responded that there had been a common power grid
in Soviet times. He said Kostanai had previously received energy
from a power station 200 kilometers away in Russia, but now received
it from Ekibastuz, a city in Kazakhstan located more than 1,000
kilometers away. Kulagin also said that a wind study was ongoing
and that he hoped for conclusions next year. In addition, he noted
that Kostanai had a biofuel project designed to produce ethanol but
said he was against the idea of producing ethanol from grain.
"Maybe in Brazil it is okay," he stressed, "but here it is not a
good idea. If it is from corn, livestock will have problems; if it
is from grain, people will have problems."


7. (SBU) Kulagin said that Kostanai is ready to cooperate with U.S.
investors, but warned that they "shouldn't be late." He noted that
Kostanai has many Russian investors, as well as Canadian companies
already working in agriculture, gold, and copper.

RHYTHM ROADS GROUP JAZZ QUARTET PLAYS TO A PACKED HOUSE


8. (SBU) The Charge gave opening remarks at an evening performance
of the Brian Horton Quartet, an American jazz group sponsored by the
State Department's Rhythm Roads program in conjunction with Jazz at
Lincoln Center. Every one of the Kostanai Philharmonic's 400 seats
was filled and there were people standing in the aisles. The
audience demonstrated their enthusiasm by showering the musicians
with flowers. The quartet's closing number -- a jazz rendition of a
traditional Kazakh folk song -- went over particularly well. Deputy
Akim of Kostanai Oblast Serik Bekturganov ended the concert by
warmly thanking the Embassy for bringing "a piece of America" to

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Kostanai.


9. (SBU) Earlier in the day, the Quartet conducted a master class.
Local musicians were so enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn
from the Quartet that professional musicians from the Kostanai
Philharmonic agreed to participate in a joint workshop with student
musicians from the Rudny Music College, located in a town 40 minutes
away. Nearly 80 people attended the master class, which ended in a
jam session.


10. (SBU) The desire of the Akimat (regional government) to
properly thank the musicians and show off Kazakhstani hospitality
continued throughout the evening. At a dinner hosted by the Deputy
Akim, the table groaned with food and drink, and every foreign guest
received a handmade item of traditional Kazakhstani clothing. This
was only the beginning. Dinner was followed by a full program of
entertainment designed to show off the oblast's top talent and
multi-ethnic character. Each foreign guest had a song specifically
dedicated to him or her: there was a Slavic group singing
traditional Ukrainian favorites, a Korean chanteuse, a Russian
singer-songwriter playing guitar, a performance of famous Kazakh
opera pieces by performers from the local opera, and a group of pop
singers dressed in shimmering faux-Egyptian wear. An oblast-hosted
dinner the following night on May 25 took place in a faux castle,
complete with suits of armor, a framed rock that had allegedly been
removed from a castle in Scotland, and a wall-length glass cabinet
containing at least 100 collectible dolls.

AMERICAN CORNER OPENING


11. (SBU) In the morning, the Charge and Deputy Akim Bekturganov
presided over the opening of Kazakhstan's ninth American corner at
the Kostanai Oblast Scientific Universal Library. Local cultural
officials pulled out all the stops to make the opening a memorable
event. There were children in traditional Kazakh dress, girls from
the local modeling agency, and performances by the bronze medalist
in the "rock vocal" category of the World Contest of Performing Arts
and the local marching band. The event -- which was attended by
approximately 90 guests including government officials, exchange
program alumni, teachers of English, Peace Corps volunteers, and
media representatives -- received widespread positive media
coverage.

OBLAST OFFICIALS SHOW OFF THEIR CITY


12. (SBU) Oblast officials were determined to show off their city in
the best possible light and accompanied the Charge as he met with
students at a specialized English school and visited a local art
gallery. He also participated in a discussion club at the American
Corner, at which numerous students performed poems, songs, and even
a ballroom dance sequence. A planned visit to the local art school
was scrapped when the head of the school failed to demonstrate to
local officials that he had adequately choreographed the visit. A
walking tour of Kostanai's historic pre-revolutionary buildings was
also eliminated by local officials, who preferred instead to show
off their "House of Friendship," a government building featuring a
"tower of wheat" with rooms dedicated to each nationality that lives
in the oblast.


13. (SBU) The Charge also hosted six Peace Corps volunteers for
lunch and met with alumni of U.S.-sponsored exchange programs. When
asked whether the Community Connections program had made a
difference in his life one alumnus pumped his fist in the air and
said he had been so impressed that upon his return he had been
unable to work for a month.


14. (SBU) Oblast officials carefully scripted the visit to show off
what they thought were their city's best features. A short city
tour on the way to the airport centered not on Kostanai's historic
buildings, but rather on the newly constructed "French house" -- a
building housing a toy museum, shops, and the French Cultural
Center. The building is adorned with life-sized bronze statues of
Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Poppins, and Joan of Arc. It also
houses a large clock. At 1:00pm each day, large dolls representing

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Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and a clown appear out of the clock
and perform a dance. The oblast is attempting to have the clock
recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. The Deputy Akim
was also anxious to show off his city's train station and
larger-than-life Soviet-era monument commemorating Khrushchev's
Virgin Lands Campaign. According to the Deputy Akim, Kostanai's
monument is the second-largest monument commemorating workers in the
former Soviet Union.


15. (SBU) COMMENT: Kostanai is the Russian heartland of
Kazakhstan. Kulagin is one of two non-Kazakh Akims (he is of
Russian heritage while the other is German.) In many ways the
Soviet Union is not forgotten in Kostanai. For example, at the
Great Patriotic War (WWII) monument, there was a floral red star
with a hammer and sickle in the center in yellow carnations.
Moreover, democratic centralism is alive and well. The library
director begged us not to tell the Deputy Akim that we had seen her
since she had begged off on the second evening of extended dining.
She said she was afraid that the Deputy Akim would be very upset
that she had worked with us but missed the dinner. However, not
everything Soviet is sacred. The head of the Akim's cultural
department proudly showed us that they were restoring a wall where
over 1,000 White Army officers had been shot. Kostanai seems eager
for foreign contact. It may provide fertile soil for commercial
opportunities, especially in the agricultural-support sector. END
COMMENT.

HOAGLAND