See Kazakhstan Timelines for: 1990-2000 , 2001, 2002, 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
2003 February 25. Debate on storage of radioactive waste.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Kazakhstan/4279_4280.html. At a 25 February 2003 government meeting, Kazakhstani Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov reported that it may take the country 15-20 years to dispose of radioactive waste currently on Kazakhstani territory. Tasmagambetov noted that this process will start in 2004 with the preparation of a feasibility study of radioactive waste disposal measures. The report will also consider the possibility of importing low- and medium-level waste. Tasmagambetov instructed ministries and other governmental organizations to decide which uranium mining facilities should be given priority and to submit applications for funding from the 2004 budget. According to Kazakhstani Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Vladimir Shkolnik, the necessary funds to clear Kazakhstan's territory of all radioactive waste will total $1.15 billion.
Sources: "Premer Kazakhstana – za byudzhetnoye finansirovaniye programmy utilizatsii yadernykh otkhodov," Interfax, 25 February 2003.
2003 March 2. Bilateral cooperation with South Africa in fields of nuclear technology.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Kazakhstan/4279_4280.html
On 22 March 2003, Kazakhstani Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Vladimir Shkolnik met with South African Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Susan Shabangu. The main topic of the discussion between the two officials was the promotion of bilateral cooperation in the fields of nuclear technology and uranium production. In addition, Shkolnik offered to provide South Africa with geological expertise and assistance in building small hydroelectric plants. According to Shabangu, both countries have significant experience to share with each other.
Sources: Elena Butyrina, "Kazakhstan i YuAR vyrazili zhelaniye sotrudnichat v oblasti yadernykh tekhnologiy i uranovoy promyshlennosti," Panorama, No. 12, 23 March 2003; in Integrum Techno, http://www.integrum.ru.
2003 March 3. James Giffen is arrested in New York, as he tries to board a plane for Paris.
2003 April 1. NYT report of Giffen arrest, notes efforts to have Cheney intervene.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30E13F8385D0C728CDDAD0894DB404482
U.S. Businessman Is Accused Of Oil Bribes to Kazakhstan
By JEFF GERTH, New York Times. Published: April 1, 2003The businessman, James H. Giffen, was released today by a federal magistrate on $10 million bond during a brief appearance in Federal District Court in Manhattan. . . A criminal complaint filed against Mr. Giffen charges the 62-year-old New Yorker with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars payments to foreign officials to influence their decisions, by transferring $25 million to unidentified Swiss bank accounts in 1995 and 1996. . . The complaint, filed by the United States attorney in Manhattan, also charges Mr. Giffen with transferring $20.5 million in 1997 to a Swiss account whose beneficiaries included a ''senior Kazakh official'' and ''his heirs.'' The complaint does not identify the senior official, but legal documents from Swiss authorities, who first uncovered the bank transfers, allege that the account's beneficiary was Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev. . . ..
In discussions with Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials, Mr. Nazarbayev and his representatives repeatedly raised the criminal inquiry in an attempt to limit the investigation, according to officials of both governments. Those pleas were rebuffed, officials from both sides said.
2003 May 23. Transfer of 3 metric tons (t) of "ivory grade" plutonium.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Kazakhstan/4279_4280.html. An article in the May 2003 issue of Science reports that Kazakhstani and US officials are about to make an $80 million deal to transfer 3 metric tons (t) of "ivory grade" plutonium, containing more than 90% Pu-239, from Aktau to Semipalatinsk. The plutonium comes from the BN-350 breeder reactor at the Mangyshlak Atomic Energy Combine (MAEK) and is contained in 300t of highly radioactive spent fuel. During the transportation procedure, which is likely to start in 2004 and continue until 2007, the spent fuel will be loaded into specially-manufactured containers and shipped by rail to the Semipalatinsk Test Site. According to Timur Zhantikin, chairman of the Kazakhstani Atomic Energy Committee, the spent fuel will be stored in underground silos at the Baykal-1 reactor complex.Sources: Richard Stone, "Save Haven for a Breeder's Plutonium Hoard," Science, Vol.300, 23 May 2003, pg. 1224.
2003 July 25. U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT ), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY ), sent a letter to Secretary of State Powell to address concerns over the current state of human rights in Kazakhstan.
http://mccain.senate.gov/press_office/view_article.cfm?id=310
The letter, sent to Secretary Powell today, highlights specific concerns in the areas of free speech, free political expression, and harassment of independent media.
2003 June 26. FT story on Kazakhstan lobbying in Washington, DC
http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/7241-16.cfm
Joshua Chaffin, "President Nursultan Nazarbayev has gone to extraordinary lengths in the past decade to gain influence in the US capital and is seeking to limit the damage from a bribery scandal, Financial Times (UK), June 26, 2003.
2003 July 31. Attempts to sell plutonium-239 on the black market.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Kazakhstan/4279_4280.html.
Agents from the Kazakhstani National Security Committee (KNB) arrested two Kazakhs and one Russian for attempting to sell the radioactive isotope plutonium-239, Ekspress-K reported on 31 July 2003. The arrests were the result of a surveillance operation. The three suspects, two residents of Pavlodar, Kazakhstan and one native of Saratov Oblast in Russia, were arrested while making the transaction at a local train station in Pavlodar. The two Kazakhs were reportedly selling the plutonium to the Russian. Police seized $20,000 in cash and an ampoule which a subsequent analysis showed to contain Pu-239.[1] A KNB spokesman later said that the isotope of plutonium seized is used in smoke detectors and "in no way can be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction."[2] Charges have been filed against the three suspects.[1]
Sources: [1] Asel Tulegenova, "Radioaktivnyy rynok," Ekspress K, 31 July 2003; in Integrum Techno, http://www.integrum.ru. [2] "Spetssluzhby Kazakhstana pri popytke prodazhi izotopa plutoniya-239 zaderzhali 3 chelovek, v tom chisle grazhdanina Rossii."
2003 September 23. Attempts to sell depleted uranium on black market.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Kazakhstan/4279_4280.html. Police in Kazakhstan have arrested a resident in the northern border town of Uralsk in West Kazakhstan Oblast who was trying to sell a container with an undisclosed amount of depleted uranium. The Kazakh newspaper Ekspress K reported the arrest on 23 September 2003. Officials have not disclosed further information about the price sought for the material, its origin or how it came to be in the oblast.
Sources: "Pochem nynche uran?" Ekspress K, 23 September 2003; in Integrum Techno, http://afnet.integrum.ru.
2003 October. Library of Congress report on Organized Crime and Terrorism, section on Kazakhstan.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/Nats_Hospitable.pdf
NATIONS HOSPITABLE TO ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORISM
A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the United States Government
October 2003Kazakhstan
Although Kazakhstan has not been a base for Central Asian terrorists, it has been a major transit country for narcotics trafficking from Afghanistan to Russia and thence into Western Europe. The northern Kazakh cities of Pavlodar and Kustanay, close to the Russian border, are the most frequent transit points into Russia. Russian customs authorities have identified the Kazakhstan-Russia border as the source of 80 percent of the heroin, 70 percent of the opium, and 60 percent of the marijuana reaching Russia.243 Such transnational trafficking is promoted by pervasive corruption in Kazakhstan’s poorly paid law enforcement agencies. Police often demand bribes of narcotics dealers who have been apprehended; dealers who identify wealthy colleagues to the police receive a share of the bribe. Upon payment, the dealer and his drugs are released. Because such practices were well established even in the Soviet era, Kazakhstan society shows strong cynicism toward law enforcement.244 The highest echelons of the Kazakh government may have shown a poor example. In mid-2002, close relatives and associates of President Nursultan Nazarbayev were implicated in an international scheme to launder money received from foreign companies to promote business in Kazakhstan. The participants allegedly used a Swiss bank account for this purpose.245Kazakhstan, which was a nuclear weapons site in the Soviet era, also may have been involved in the theft and smuggling of osmium-187, a radioactive substance that is not used in making nuclear weapons. In the last three years, several reports have named Kazakhstan as the source of smuggled osmium-187, possibly en route to terrorist organizations or Iraq. In December 2001, Moscow authorities arrested a group of Chechens from Kazakhstan, who had osmium-187 in their possession.246 Such reports indicate that Kazakhstan has exercised lax security for sensitive materials and porous border controls. As of mid-2002, Kazakhstan still was negotiating with the United States about removing the weapons-grade nuclear material remaining in the country.247
243 “Major Busts Made by Hungarians, Russians, Romanians,” RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch, 2, no. 35 (4 October 2002). <http://www.rfe.rl.org/corruptionwatch>
244 Daur Dosybiev, “Kazakhstan: Police Corruption Worsens,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Report on Central Asia, no. 128 (5 July 2002). <http://www.iwpr.net>
245 Viktor Antichenko, “The State: It Is I and My Daughter,” Novaya Gazeta [Moscow], 17 June 2002 (FBIS Document CEP20020620000337).
246 Dmitriy Starostin, “Osmium Worries the FSB,” Vremya Novostey [Moscow], 27 September 2002. <http://www.nti.org>
247 Nuclear Threat Initiative, “Kazakhstan Overview,” February 2002. <http://www.nti.org>
2003 October 23. Department of Commerce decreases licensing requirements for exports of items controlled for nuclear nonproliferation (NP) reasons to Kazakhstan.
Federal Register: October 22, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 204, Page 60288-60290)
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-26563.htm
As a result of the admission of Kazakhstan to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the rule amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to lessen the administrative burden on U.S. exporters by decreasing licensing requirements for exports of items controlled for nuclear nonproliferation (NP) reasons to Kazakhstan.
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2003_10_22.html
United States Eases Licensing Requirements for Nuclear Technology Exports to Kazakhstan
By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire. . .
Experts have warned that Kazakhstan poses proliferation concerns because of weak border controls and enforcement of export controls. In addition, there are also concerns that would-be terrorists could obtain in Kazakhstan nuclear weapons-related materials or other radioactive materials that could be used to build a radiological weapon.
During a conference held earlier this month at Harvard University in Boston, Togzhan Kassenova of the Institute for Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom cited a 1992 study conducted in Kazakhstan that compiled an inventory of about 100,000 registered radioactive sources, which were used during the Soviet era for medical and industrial purposes. Currently, however, only about half of those sources are still registered, she said (see GSN, Oct. 6).
See Kazakhstan Timelines for: 1990-2000 , 2001, 2002, 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.