{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreiaohnkkqmzn6omniaww3g2pmyvl4o2pnevgmfwj6wdgriso2jtafu",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:av64nrsc7sczp26nmabnikse/app.bsky.feed.post/3mghno5fb7r72"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreielhurplmaczsvllrkq4az5jf2mhkst5waf4dxjljlhdkv4mlgvau"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 542175
  },
  "path": "/english/68620-the-week-in-kazakhstan-mine-your-business.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-06T12:42:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://vlast.kz",
  "tags": [
    "Vlast English"
  ],
  "textContent": "Kazakhstan has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the wake of coordinated US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent drone and missile strikes against Gulf countries. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev “strongly condemned all military actions”, reached out to five Arab nations leaders, and stated on March 1 that Kazakhstan would be “ready to provide assistance if necessary” to Gulf countries. On March 3, deputy foreign minister Alibek Bakayev said the country was “not taking sides.” The following day, Serik Zhumangarin, deputy Prime Minister and minister of economy, said that Kazakhstan would continue to trade with Iran and countries in the Gulf. [_Read more here._]\n\nFollowing an inspection by the West Kazakhstan region’s department of ecology, the ministry of ecology fined the international consortium operating Karachaganak, a major gas and condensate field, on March 3. The consortium, which includes British Shell and Italy’s Eni, was fined more than 2 billion tenge ($4.2 million) for exceeding emissions and wastewater discharge limits.\n\nOn March 5, Shell and Kazakhstan’s government signed an agreement to allow oil and gas exploration in the Zhanaturmys block in the Aktobe region. The contract, which will run until 2032, comes amid ongoing court and arbitration disputes between Shell and Kazakhstan’s government. In February its CEO said it would halt future investment in the country. [_Read more here.]_\n\nKazakhstan’s Central Bank opted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 18% on March 6. The regulator said that inflation stood at 11.7% in February, in line with forecasts, and slightly improved its predicted annual inflation rate to within a range of 9.5–11.5%.\n\nSydney-listed Lindian Resources signed an agreement on March 3 to buy a 51% stake in Sareco, a mixed rare earth carbonite processing facility in Kazakhstan.Sareco was previously owned by state-owned Kazatomprom (51%) and Japan’s Sumitomo (49%). Lindian is poised to ship monazite concentrate, a rare-earths material used in wind turbine and nuclear energy materials, from its mine in Malawi to the Sareco plant in Kazakhstan by the end of this year.\n\nOn March 5, the Astana mayor's office rejected civil activist Musagali Dauylov’s request to hold a one-person picket on March 12 against the adoption of the new Constitution. He had previously been denied permission to hold a picket in his hometown of Aktobe. A referendum to adopt a new Constitution is scheduled for March 15.\n\nOrazaly Yerzhanov, an anticorruption activist who was arrested last week after calling for a boycott of the referendum, was placed under pre-trial detention for two months on March 5. His lawyer told journalist Vadim Boreiko that the decision was made “literally an hour before the expiration of the 10-day administrative arrest.”\n\nJournalists Lukpan Akhmedyarov, Raul Uporov, and Yerkebulan Gapuov were temporarily stopped at Astana international airport on March 4. The journalists reported that their past travels to Ukraine were cited as the reason for extra checks. After a one-hour wait, they were released without further questioning and let back into the country.\n\nAs the European Commission readies its next sanctions list against companies and individuals it deems connected to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan’s government has warned it may file a lawsuit if their trade links are targeted, the FT reported on March 2. [_Read more here._]\n\n**Sign up for our English-language newsletter.**",
  "title": "The Week in Kazakhstan: Mine Your Business"
}