See Kazakhstan Timelines for: 1990-2000 , 2001, 2002, 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
2002 January 4. Violent death of Alexei Pugayev, co-publisher of opposition newspaper and Internet website Eurasia
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Alexei Pugayev, co-publisher of the opposition newspaper and Internet website Eurasia, was knocked down and killed by a car on 4 January 2002. He had frequently criticised the president and his associates.
2002 March 8. Irina Petrushova receives funeral wreath with her name on it.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Irina Petrushova, editor of the opposition weekly Respublika, which investigates political corruption, was sent a funeral wreath on 8 March.
2002 March 18. Reid H. Weingarten, an attorney for the Washington, DC, law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, meets again with NY federal prosecutors, on behalf of the government of Kazakhstan, "seeking an effective guarantee that Nazarbayev would not be indicted," in an investigation centering on bribes paid to Nazarbayev and others by James H. Giffen.
2002 March 25. The U.S. Department of Commerce " finds that Kazakhstan has operated as a market-economy country."
http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn/0204frn/02-7954.txt
2002 March 27. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans calls President Nazarbayev.
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-kazakhembus/040402.html On March 27, Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans called President Nazarbayev to congratulate him on Kazakhstan's obtaining the market-economy status, the press service of the president reported the same day. Secretary Evans said the United States made this decision with great satisfaction since it will promote partnership between the U.S. and Kazakhstan.
2002 May 16-17. Nuclear Suppliers Group welcomed Kazakhstan as newest particpating member.
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2002/5/22/6s.html
From Wednesday, May 22, 2002 issue of the Global Security Newswire. The Nuclear Suppliers Group called last week for discussions with nonmember countries that have nuclear programs and might be nuclear suppliers. The 40-nation group, which uses export controls to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, held its 2002 plenary meeting in Prague May 16-17. At the meeting, members welcomed Kazakhstan as the newest participating country and called for discussions with Israel, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico and Pakistan. The group should work with those countries to strengthen nuclear nonproliferation efforts and apply export controls, members said, according to a press release.
2000 May 19. Body of headless dog hung over the entrance of opposition weekly Respublika.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Irina Petrushova, editor of the opposition weekly Respublika, which investigates political corruption, was sent a funeral wreath on 8 March. The body of a headless dog was hung over the office entrance on 19 May.
2002 May 20. Access to independent website navigator.kz was blocked after reporting on President Nazarbayev swiss bank accounts
Access to the independent website navigator.kz was blocked on 20 May after it posted an interview with a former Geneva prosecutor, Bernard Bertossa, confirming that President Nazarbayev and other top officials had Swiss bank accounts. The interview, done by Lira Baysetova, former editor of the opposition weekly Respublika 2000, was also published in the daily paper SolDat.
2002 May 21. Violent attack of opposition newspaper SolDat
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Thugs attacked the main office of the opposition newspaper SolDat on 21 May, hitting two employees, stealing computer equipment and smashing other equipment. The paper, which is close to an opposition party led by exiled former prime minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, has been the target of much harassment and attacks on its offices over the past two years. Editor Ermurat Bapi was prosecuted in 2000 for publishing an article considered insulting to President Nazarbayev.
2000 May 22. The office of the opposition weekly Respublika bombed and burned down.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Irina Petrushova, editor of the opposition weekly Respublika, which investigates political corruption, was sent a funeral wreath on 8 March. The body of a headless dog was hung over the office entrance on 19 May. The offices burned down three days later after petrol bombs were thrown at the building. Two suspects were arrested on 24 July. On 4 July, Petrushova was sentenced to 18 months in prison for not having declared her Russian nationality but immediately amnestied. On 24 July, the authorities ordered the liquidation of PR-Consulting, which publishes the paper, for violating administrative rules.
2002 June 13. Soros calls fo "Publish What You Pay" policy to promote transparency of payments for oil and other natural resources.
In a column in the Financial Times ("Transparent Corruption"), Soros says Oil and natural resource companies should make clear how much money is being taken by officials. "All over the world, countries that should be rich remain poor. Though blessed with valuable minerals such as oil, diamonds and gold, the ordinary people of Angola, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and elsewhere are mired in poverty while corrupt officials prosper. Money that could be used to reduce poverty and jump-start economic growth is stolen instead."
2002 June 13. Two journalists arrested
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Batyrkhan Darimbet, correspondent of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty in Almaty, was arrested on 13 June 2002 while reporting on a rally of the retired government employees movement Pokoleniye and supporters of the opposition party Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement. Although he showed his press card and said why he was at the rally, he was held for five hours until the US embassy managed to obtain his release. Bakhytgul Makimbay, correspondent of the daily SolDat, was held for four hours on the same occasion.
2002 June 16. Daughter of Editor Lira Baysetova is reported to have hanged while held in police custody.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Access to the independent website navigator.kz was blocked on 20 May after it posted an interview with a former Geneva prosecutor, Bernard Bertossa, confirming that President Nazarbayev and other top officials had Swiss bank accounts. The interview, done by Lira Baysetova, former editor of the opposition weekly Respublika 2000, was also published in the daily paper SolDat. On 21 June, Baysetova’s daughter Leila died in suspicious circumstances. Police said she tried to hang herself in her cell on 16 June while being held by police for alleged possession of drugs. She was taken to hospital unconscious and died there five days later.
2002 June 18. Conviction of correspondent of the independent TV station Irbis TV
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
A court in Pavlodar sentenced Kanat Tusupbekov, correspondent of the independent TV station Irbis TV, to two years in prison on 18 June 2002 for "hooliganism." He had been attacked in a restaurant by thugs on 20 April. When he went to the police station to file a complaint, he was beaten up by the police and badly injured. After this second assault, he tried to file a complaint but was refused. The three men who attacked him in the restaurant, however, filed a complaint against him, saying he had started a fight. He was found guilty of attacking them.
2002 July 4. Resident of Pavlodar arrested during attempt to sell cesium-137.
On 4 July 2002, the Committee for National Security (KNB) of the Republic of Kazakhstan arrested a resident of Pavlodar, the capital of Pavlodar Oblast in northern Kazakhstan during an attempt to sell 5 grams of cesium-137. The KNB investigation into the incident is continuing.
2002 July 9. Prosecution of pro-opposition journalist Sergei Duvanov
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Pro-opposition journalist and human rights activist Sergei Duvanov, editor of the magazine Bulletin, was prosecuted on 9 July for harming the reputation and dignity of President Nazarbayev. Under article 318 of the criminal code, he risked three years in prison. He had published an article on the opposition website kub.kz on 6 May called "The Silence of the Lambs," sharply criticising the president and saying he had embezzled public funds.
2002 July 29. Arrest of Sagyngali Kapizov, editor of the weekly Altyn Gasyr
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Sagyngali Kapizov, editor of the weekly Altyn Gasyr, in Atyrau, was arrested on 29 July and accused of harming the reputation and dignity of the president in an article criticising government policy. He was freed on 18 September.
2002 September 9. Reid H. Weingarten, an attorney for the Washington, DC, law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, writes a nine-page letter to US Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson "on behalf of his client, the Republic of Kazakhstan," seekking Thompson’s intervention in what was at the time a grand jury investigation focusing on possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by Giffen, who is chairman of the merchant bank Mercator Corp.
2002 August 16. Journalist Artur Platonov beaten.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Artur Platonov, co-producer and presenter of "Portret nedely," the main political programme of the independent TV station KTK, was attacked by three thugs in front of his home in Almaty on 16 August 2002. Police identified them as former policemen but officially said the journalist’s injuries were caused by a collision between his car and that of the attackers. The TV station’s deputy chief, Stanislas Los, said the attack was planned by powerful people whose names he did not know. Platonov had denounced corruption among the police and had regularly received anonymous threats. At the end of November, the three former policemen were each given one-year suspended jail sentences for attacking Platonov.
2002 August 18. Journalist and human rights activist Sergei Duvanov beaten.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Journalist and human rights activist Sergei Duvanov, a leading government critic, was badly beaten up by three thugs on his way home on 28 August and hospitalised with serious head injuries. An opposition supporter, he edits the magazine Bulletin.
2002 September 11. Viktor Ilyukin tells press smuggling of osmium from Kazakhstan presents a proliferation threat.
http://www.nti.org/db/nistraff/2002/20020450.htm
Chlen dumskogo komiteta preduprezhdaet ob ugroze rasprostraneniya yadernykh materialov s territorii Kazakhstana [State Duma Committee Member warns about a threat of nuclear materials proliferation from Kazakhstan]
Viktor Ilyukin, a member of the Russian State Duma's Security Committee, a prominent member of the Russian Communist Party, told a press conference on 11 September 2002 that the smuggling of osmium from Kazakhstan presents a proliferation threat. He said the Kazakhmys copper ore mining enterprise outside the town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan continues "to maintain in full the technology and equipment necessary to enrich osmium-187," an isotopel Ilyukhin claims is used to produce nuclear weapons. He said couriers had been arrested in several Russian cities this year while attempting to sell the metal. (See entries 20010690 and 20000430.)[Osmium is not a controlled material under US law or the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and according to the US Defense Special Weapons Agency, 'cannot be used in the production of nuclear weapons.' It is frequently used in scams by con artists, however, who claim that it has nuclear weapons applications.]
Vladislav Nikolayev, director of the press service of Kazakhmys, told Interfax that his enterprise has no connection with the production of osmium-187.[1] He said his company delivers raw materials to the Zhezkazganredmet state enterprise, which produces rare metals. He also noted that Zhezkazganredmet's workshop is located on the territory of the Zhezkazganredmet Copper Smelting Factory, which is part of Kazakhmys. However, Zhezkazganredmet itself is independent of Kazakhmys. Meanwhile, Mukhtar Bayelov, Deputy Director of Production at the Zhezkazganredmet state enterprise, called Ilyukhin's accusations a canard.[1] He explained that his factory produces a number of rare metals, including rhenium, from raw materials provided by Kazakhmys.[1] He said that Zhezkazganredmet has not produced osmium-187 in five years and that existing stocks of the metal are not exported but kept in a state storage facility.[1]
1] "V Kazakhstane otritsayut utechku yadernykh materialov iz respubliki," Interfax, 12 September 2002.
2002 September 12. Kazakhstan denies nuclear materials could be stolen in Kazakhstan
KAZAKHSTAN DENIES THEFT FROM ITS TERRITORY OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS, September 12, 2002 issue of the CACI Analyst
Mukhtar Bayelov, who is a senior official of Kazakhstan's state-run body responsible for precious metals, denied on 12 September that nuclear materials could be stolen in Kazakhstan and transported to other CIS states. Bayelov said allegations made the previous day by Russian State Duma Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin that osmium-187 stolen from Kazakhstan has surfaced in several Russian cities are unsubstantiated. He added that no osmium-187 has been produced in or exported from Kazakhstan for the past five years, and that stockpiles of it are kept in a state warehouse. (Interfax)
2002 October. Aide to Mr. Cheney and Elizabeth Jones, the assistant secretary of state who oversees Kazakhstan, both made queries to the Justice Department about the Giffen investigation.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30D16FD3F5E0C728DDDAB0994DA404482
(or http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/121102NYTimes.shtml)
Jeff Gerth, "Bribery Inquiry Involves Kazakh Chief, and He's Unhappy," New York Times. December 11, 2002. Federal prosecutors have said that President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan accepted large bribes in connection with dispensing his country's oil concessions during the 1990's, and later tried to obstruct the federal inquiry into the payments, which came from American oil companies, according to legal documents. The allegations were made by the Justice Department in a sealed motion and described recently in a letter of complaint from Kazakhstan's lawyers to the deputy attorney general. The letter was part of a quiet effort to exempt Mr. Nazarbayev from prosecution. Mr. Nazarbayev and his representatives have raised the issue with Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials several times, but the effort to curb the investigation has been unsuccessful, according to court records and officials of both governments. Administration officials said Washington had rebuffed the Kazakhs' efforts. . .
Kazakhstan has also been trying to recover more than $80 million frozen in a Swiss bank account that Mr. Weingarten says belongs to the Kazakh government. Swiss officials say they have frozen more than $120 million at the urging of American investigators. American and Swiss investigators have said in court filings that bank accounts were set up for the personal benefit of top Kazakh officials and their families, including President Nazarbayev.
The issue of the frozen accounts was raised by two of Mr. Nazarbayev's top aides when they spoke with Vice President Cheney in October 2001, according to American and Kazakh officials. The aides also firmed up a White House visit for Mr. Nazarbayev with President Bush, which took place two months later.
Mr. Cheney was in a secure location because of terrorist threats, so he talked with the Kazakh officials via a video connection, officials said. The most vexing subject was the Kazakh concern about the Justice Department inquiry and the frozen funds, officials on both sides said.
After the video meeting, an aide to Mr. Cheney and Elizabeth Jones, the assistant secretary of state who oversees Kazakhstan, both made queries to the Justice Department about the investigation, officials said. When Mr. Nazarbayev came to see Mr. Bush several weeks later, his aides were told there was nothing the administration could do about the investigation.
2002 October 27 Osumium smuggling from Kazakhstan
http://www.nti.org/db/nistraff/2002/20020620.htm
FSB bespokoit osmiy [The FSB is Worried About Osmium]
The threat of osmium smuggling from Kazakhstan into Russia recently pointed to by Russian State Duma Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin, a member of the Communist opposition (see 20020450 entry), continues to generate reports in the Russian media about the possible use of osmium in nuclear technologies. Many of these reports also link Chechen groups with illicit trafficking in radioactive materials, particularly noting the involvement of Chechens in incidents with osmium-187. [Osmium is not a controlled material under US law or the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and according to the US Defense Special Weapons Agency, 'cannot be used in the production of nuclear weapons.' It is frequently used in scams by con artists, however, who claim that it has nuclear weapons applications.]
According to an article in the newspaper Vremya novostey, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) held a meeting in late October 2002 to discuss the increased number of illegal transactions involving components of nuclear and chemical weaponry in the territory of the former Soviet republics. As an illustration of the issues discussed at this meeting, the paper provides information about the arrest of five Chechen nationals who were caught with a vial containing 6 grams of osmium-187 in a Moscow bank in December 2001 (for details, see 20010690 entry). An investigation into this incident revealed that the smugglers came from the Northeastern part of Kazakhstan, where many ethnic Chechen reside since their forced relocation during the Stalin era. According to Vremya novostey, the osmium-187 siezed in this incident was intended for sale to the former prime-minister of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya, Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, who currently resides in Azerbaijan. From Azerbaijan the osmium was to be re-sold to "one of the Middle East countries, presumably to Iraq." Kazakhstan was again named as the source of the seized osmium-187. Vremya novostey also cited other examples of illicit trade in osmium-187 from Kazakhstan, including a May 2000 seizure in Novosibirsk of approximately 1 gram of osmium-187 (see 20000430 entry), and the August 2001 arrest of a citizen of Kazakhstan with 20 grams of osmium-187, also in Novosibirsk. Vremya Novostey also reported that a group of traders in radioactive materials from Kazakhstan was spotted in Chechnya in July 2002. They were reportedly searching for buyers among the "most influential mujaheddins from the so-called Khattab network," said the paper, citing an analytical report prepared for General Staff of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
A September 2002 article in Argumenty i fakty also discusses the threat posed by smuggling of osmium-187, claiming that technologies for the chemical separation of osmium and plutonium "are completely identical," implying that osmium is linked to the production of nuclear weapons.[1] It alleges that the August 2002 kidnapping and murder of Krasnoyarsk physicist Sergey Bakhvalov, described as an expert in plutonium separation, could be linked to efforts by terrorist groups to acquire technology that could be used to produce material for a nuclear weapon.[1] The article alleges that the kidnapping of the Krasnoyarsk scientist and the recent illicit trafficking incidents involving osmium are interrelated and part of a coordinated clandestine effort by terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons.[1] It suggests that Chechen terrorists bought osmium in Kazakhstan and planned to use Bakhvalov's expertise to help them construct a nuclear weapon.[1] The article speculates that Bakhvalov refused to help his kidnappers, who then killed him.[1] The article does not provide any evidence, however, to support its claim that Bakhvalov was kidnapped by Chechen terrorists. According to an article in the Moscow daily Kommersant, Sergey Bakhvalov was a nuclear scientist who headed the department of physical chemistry at the Krasnoyarsk State University.[2] He also directed the Scientific Research Engineering Center Kristal, a business engaged in radioactive waste processing, metallurgy, development and production of semiconductors, and nonferrous metal trading.[2] Kristal recently won a tender to process and dispose of radioactive waste from the nuclear submarine Kursk which exploded in August 2000 and had also concluded a $400,000 contract with a Chelyabisnk company for sale of nonferrous metals.[2] Kommersant reported that Bakhvalov's business activities are considered by Krasnoyarsk investigators as the prime motive behind his murder.[2]
[1] Boris Soldatenko, "Gde 'vsplyvet' chastnaya atomnaya bomba?" Argumenty i fakty, No. 38, 18 September 2002, p.12; in WPS Yadernye Materialy, No. 32, 27 September 2002.
[2] "Nashli razrabotchika utilizatsii 'Kurska'," Kommersant, 29 September 2002; in Intergrum Techno, http://www.integrum.com
2002 October 28. Arrest of Sergei Duvanov, editor of the opposition magazine Bulletin
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Sergei Duvanov, editor of the opposition magazine Bulletin, published by the International Bureau for Human Rights, was arrested on 28 October and accused of raping a minor. He had been due to fly the next day to the United States to present a report on democracy and human rights in Kazakhstan. He was held at the Almaty remand centre and went on a 10-day hunger strike in an effort to prove his innocence. At the end of the year, the trial was still going on. At a press conference at the European Commission in Brussels on 29 November, President Nazarbayev said Duvanov’s "guilt had been proved." His trial began in Almaty on 24 December, but his lawyers were not allowed to see all the case file.
2002 November 17. Violent death of Nuri Muftah, correspondent of the opposition paper Respublika 2000 and editor of the weekly Altyn Gasyr
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6522
Nuri Muftah, correspondent of the opposition paper Respublika 2000 and editor of the weekly Altyn Gasyr, in the western town of Atyrau, was knocked down and killed by a bus on 17 November as he returned from reporting on living conditions of women in the southern town of Shymkent. Police said it was an accident, but some witnesses said the journalists was pushed in front of the bus. During his investigations in Shymkent, he was attacked by three thugs. He had written many articles denouncing government corruption.
2002 November 19. McCain and Leahy inquire about Giffen investigation.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav121002.shtml
Marck Berniker, "SENATORS SEEK PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF US BRIBERY PROBE, December 10, 2002. In a November 19 letter, however, Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, called on US Attorney General John Ashcroft to provide an update on the US government’s findings in the investigation. The McCain-Leahy letter expressed concern about the possibility that the investigation centers on improper payments made to top Kazakhstani officials. "We would appreciate your update on the status of the [Justice] Department’s investigation, including when you anticipate federal charges may be brought against the alleged perpetrators of bribery in violation of the FCPA," the McCain-Leahy letter to Ashcroft said. "Apparently, the scope of the investigation involves improper payments to members of the government of Kazakhstan by US oil interests."
See Kazakhstan Timelines for: 1990-2000 , 2001, 2002, 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.