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  "path": "/english/69258-the-week-in-kazakhstan-pick-your-battles.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-04T11:15:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://vlast.kz",
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  "textContent": "Presidential press secretary Aibek Smadiyarov confirmed on May 2 that a Kazakhstani citizen had been freed from custody as part of a “five for five” exchange conducted between the governments of Belarus and Poland on April 28. Anuar Bakibay, a former employee of Kazakhstan’s embassy in Ukraine, was detained in July 2025 in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz on suspicions of conducting espionage on behalf of the Russian government.\n\nOn April 29, another Kazakhstani citizen was arrested in Berlin on suspicions of spying for Russia. According to German investigators, an individual named as “Sergej K” worked for as long as one year passing information regarding German military aid to Ukraine on to Russian intelligence agencies.\n\nA shell company backed by US President Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, has announced a merger with Cove Kaz, a critical minerals consortium set to develop a major mining project in Kazakhstan, the FT reported on April 30. In November, Cove Kaz and Tau-Ken Samruk, a state-owned mining company, announced a deal to develop the “largest known undeveloped” tungsten deposit in the world. The project is set to receive up to $1.6 billion in support from US development agencies.\n\nKazakhstan’s ministry of energy announced on April 30 that the country would not be reconsidering its membership in the expanded OPEC+ oil export organization following the UAE’s planned departure from the primary OPEC body. Prior to the ministry’s statement, local industry analysts had questioned the sensibility of Kazakhstan’s continued partnership in OPEC+, as the country regularly exceeds production quotas set by the organization.\n\nKazakhstan’s ministry of justice announced on April 29 that government agencies will begin using artificial intelligence to identify workers receiving their salaries in cash. The move will help find those who are currently trying to avoid paying alimony, deputy justice minister Bekbolat Moldabekov said.\n\nAn investigation has been opened against a group of suspected criminals in Kazakhstan for illegally compiling the personal data of Kazakhstani citizens and selling the information online, the country’s National Security Committee reported on April 27.\n\nArtem Sochnev, an activist from the northern town of Stepnogorsk was fined 86,500 tenge ($186) on April 28 after being found guilty of posting “false information” on Instagram. The 33-year-old had been charged in early April, nearly two months after posting a video criticizing Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov and local authorities for insufficiently funding a water main reconstruction project.\n\nOn April 27, independent journalist Vadim Boreiko had his bank accounts frozen in connection with a defamation civil suit brought against him by a construction company based in Almaty. Boreiko previously has had his social media accounts hacked and subjected to bot attacks.\n\nThe way Kazakhstan’s authorities handled two separate criminal cases raises concerns of institutional homophobia, Human Rights Watch said in a note on April 27. The human rights group linked the courts’ conduct to the recent adoption of a strict “anti-LGBT propaganda” law.\n\nFormer deputy Prime Minister Yerbol Orynbayev described a company with links to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev as a “criminal enterprise” on April 29, the FT reported. The allegation comes amid a corruption and money laundering trial brought against financial services company Jusan Technologies in London by former COO Ilyas Seitayev. Links between Nazarbayev and Jusan were first established in 2022 following a joint investigation by Vlast, Kloop, and OCCRP.\n\nA rockfall killed one worker and injured another at the Orlovskaya mine in the Abai region, KAZ Minerals reported on April 27. The mining giant produces copper and zinc at Orlovskaya. In 2024, a landslide killed another worker at the mine.\n\nKamchybek Tashiev, Kyrgyzstan’s former deputy Prime Minister and head of the National Security Committee, has been charged with plotting to “violently seizure of power,” Kaktus Media reported on April 29, citing Tashiev’s lawyers. On February 10, Tashiev, who maintains his innocence, was fired by President Sadyr Japarov while traveling to Germany for medical treatment. Tashiev is currently banned from leaving the country.\n\nA corruption and money laundering trial brought against Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former President Islam Karimov, was dropped by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court on April 28, due to the fact that Karimova is already serving a prison sentence in Uzbekistan. Prosecutors had accused Karimova of using intermediaries to conceal the criminal origins of funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars deposited into Swiss financial institutions.\n\n_This weekly covers April 25 – May 4._\n\n**Sign up for our English-language newsletter.**",
  "title": "The Week in Kazakhstan: Pick Your Battles"
}