Comments on: Is Rakhat Aliyev a Victim of Kazakh Power Politics?

By: Oldschool Boy

Oldschool Boy — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:35:06 +0000

Right –
See No Evil, Hear No Evil…

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:33:54 +0000

Yeah, you’re right, Karimektebbala – I thought Askar Aliyev was a relative. And you are far from the first person I’ve heard from that thinks Rakhat will be first in line when Satan hires a replacement.

All that being said, everything we hear about this guy is hearsay, rumor, and wives’ tales. Even the bankers he was oppressing/robbing/murdering – there’s very little solid evidence. It’s hard for me to be as livid about Rakhat without more than circumstantial evidence.

So, while it may get on your nerves, I feel the need to continually give him the benefit of the doubt.

By: Oldschool Boy

Oldschool Boy — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:00:49 +0000

Aliyev is just one of the most common last names in the former USSR muslim countries, as Ali is one of the most common names among muslims.
Sugar’s father had not been “powerful” before his son got married the president’s daughter. I know people who’ve worked in the health system and who’ve disdained Sweet’s father for his lack of competence.
You could have mistaken him with another Aliyev family – Askar Aliyev who was a mayor of Shimkent during Konaev’s power. He was put in prison by Gorbachov’s regime for being nationalistic and supporting student’s demonstration in December 1986.
Don’t make a hero out of a dastard. He is a meanest criminal, who was sucking blood from working people and taking candies from children. He was making crimes and hiding behind his stepfather’s back. I would respect Pinocet and Miloshevic more that Sweet. I don’t call him by name because it is dishonest and dirty.

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:31:15 +0000

While Rakhat might be a “nothing,” the name Aliyev is not nothing. There were Aliyevs in power in Kazakhstan before Rakhat, and there’s a chance Rakhat will not be the last of his family to have power in Kazakhstan.

Who knows? Anything is possible when Nazarbayev finally leaves office, especially if it is sudden.

By: Oldschool Boy

Oldschool Boy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:35:22 +0000

I can’t believe this name was dragged up again. It’s annoying. He was nothing, then he married a president’s daughter and became a thing, now he is nothing again. He is bluffing. He does not have anything, or he would have stepped forward long time ago. His name emerges again, but there is nothing behind. It has been a couple of years already since he started promissing some information on the Kazakh Government but he has shown nothing. He just likes time to time to create some buzz about himself. Sweet Sugar has to be forgotten.

By: Make

Make — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:31:27 +0000

As a citizen of the country you are talking about, I think Aliev is a criminal and has to be sent to jail. Nazarbayev is a total mystery for me. sometimes he acts like an idiot but most of the time he is a good president.

By: Narcogen

Narcogen — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:56:54 +0000

I don’t see any conflict between Aliyev being “everything the press says and worse” and also being “no more or less corrupt than anyone else in Astana”.

Joshua, I can see your dislike for Aliyev and his current tactics, but let’s not forget– the fact that he has personal motivations for saying these things does not necessarily make them less (or indeed more) true. However, absent of those motivations, no one would be saying them at all.

The one question I cannot bring myself to satisfactorily answer is this: Aliyev’s “misbehavior” had previously led his father in law to remove him from a position of power and exile him to the ambassadorship of Austria, only to bring him back later.

Their second falling out was far deeper and, seemingly, more final. Yet still Aliyev was sent to Austria, then charged and convicted in absentia. Sure, Kazakhstan tried to have him extradited, but the prosecutor’s office should have known that getting him extradited would be tough without the benefit of a treaty, and that Aliyev would certainly claim political persecution at home, and that there would be those in the West willing to entertain that claim, regardless of their reservations about him.

Why was he sent at all? Was this a favor from the father to the daughter, to allow the ex-husband to escape to live elsewhere rather than sit in jail in Kazakhstan? Or was this merely a lack of foresight?

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:03:35 +0000

Definitely one of the more unique personalities in Kazakhstan’s political history. I’ve met three kinds of Kazakhs:

Those who want nothing to do with politics,
Those who think Rakhat Aliyev is everything the press says and worse – someone that is just a power-hungry hanger-on of Nazarbayev,
Those who think it’s all a ruse, and that Rakhat is no more or no less corrupt than anyone else in Astana.

It’s especially important to remember that Aliyev is by no means a new-comer that just “married into” political power. His father was a Health Minister, and the family was very powerful during the days of the Soviet Union. I’ve met Kazakhs who believe that because of this, Rakhat is seen as the only serious threat to Nazarbayev – and not because he married Nazarbayev’s daughter. As anyone in Central Asia can tell you, it’s about connections – the Aliyev family has a long history of connections, comparable to the Nazarbayev family.

What do I think? Well, it’s likely he’s both victim and oppressor here, whereas Nazarbayev is currently no one’s victim.