Bellow is the full Internet publication by one of the authors of the Eurasia site is presented (www.eurasia.org.ru.1999/analitica/12-25-abliaz.htm). In my opinion, this web site is closely connected with the name of Mr. Kazhegeldin, i.e. the former Premier himself finances the site and its authors and shapes its policies.
As a publisher and editor, I would like to dove-tail this publication with my commentary which, I hope, may turn out to be interesting to the Reader.
�On December 3 THE GLOBE published the article �Why Has the West Turned on Kazhegeldin?�, says Victor Shelgunov. It is true. The article has been published by THE GLOBE and it was provided with a reference to Radio Liberty as a source of the information.
�But Radio Liberty did not prepare and did not air such kind of material�, argues the author of the electronic publication.
Unfortunately, I cannot speak out about all pre-conditions of publication of the aforementioned article in my paper. We ourselves as well as with the help of our friends are currently conducting the investigation and are not inclined show out our trump cards ahead of time. Certainly, the main thing for the journalist is the source of information. At the time of preparing the issue with the article I was absolutely convinced that the reference to Radio Liberty was OK. Now I am to consider whether I have been schemed against or may be a more powerful (than the confrontation with the Eurasia site) bomb is in my disposal.
Now let us discuss the sharp moment. �The authors of the opuses suggested an idea to the readership that the political activity of the chairman of the Republican People�s Party (i.e. that of Mr. Kazhegeldin � N.A.) was funded by the Trans World Group company as well as by brothers Chernye�, says the author of the electronic publication. �A seemingly respectable (it�s about THE GLOBE � N.A.) edition published with a reference to Radio Liberty a rude and false material compromising the opposition�s leader� continues the author.
I insist, the words �Radio Liberty� are the key words.
The following is worth recalling. In 1994 autumn Mr. Kazhegeldin, a newly appointed Premier started his program of privatization according individual projects (Case-by-Case Privatization). Here are three deals: the sale of the Pavlodar aluminum plant, the Kazkhrom corporation and Sokolovsk and Sarbaysk mining giant of Kazakhstan. All three buyers are affiliated with the widely known British TWG company owned by brothers Chernye.
In 1997 President Nazarbayev fired his Premier Kazhegeldin. Immediately the widely known scandal with Sokolovsk and Sarbaysk mining corporation followed. TWG left Kazakhstan.
Was it indeed not reasonable for journalists and analysts to suppose that Kazhegeldin and brothers Chernye were closely linked?
Well, one may think that the whole of privatization was carried out under the auspices of Mr. Nazarbayev. Then why questions to Kazhegeldin? Why scandals after the Premier�s resignation?
And what about funding of �political activities of the chairman of the Republican People�s Party?� At this point, the situation with brothers Chernye is not so clear. Suspicions exist.
By the way, let us try to pay attention to who controlled the process of the 1994 privatization. At that time (only 2 years of Kazakhstan�s independence!) former Communist party methods worked full swing, they are viable even today. In Soviet times, the Central Committee of the Communist Party supervised the government. Every success of the government was considered as the Central Committee�s victory. Every failure of the government was considered as the government�s fault. Later the President�s staff began to perform the same functions. One may think that at that time President Nazarbayev, former Kazakhstan�s Communist Party boss, concentrated mainly on strengthening sovereignty of the State and personally controlled only several major oil projects and put the rest into the hands of the government. It seems that nobody � except Mr. Kazhegeldin, of course � understood how much that was. The control of KGB over the government was lifted, so Kazhegeldin had all opportunities to make his political and public relations capital for the future. The aforementioned facts about privatization are enough to suppose that brothers Chernye had the hand in the affair.
But let us return to the publication about us on Kazhegeldin�s web site. Another theme for discussion had been offered. Allegedly, Kazakhstan�s authorities banned the access to the Eurasia site through Internet. We argued that those were �false and unchecked rumors�. The investigation was carried out by Wallace Koufman who was called �an unlucky journalist� by Eurasia. I have got several buttresses in my journalism. Koufman is one of them. Let me not to believe you, gentlemen from Eurasia, everything is all right with him. Whatever reasons for the closure of the web site (you state that it was the KGB action), in two days everything was normalized. On the eve of Nazarbayev�s visit to the US, only you with your superiors profited from this mess. So a question, who was interested in this �closure�?
I would like to pay attention to the following.
Strange situations with Mr. Kazhegeldin occur from time to time. Once he was allegedly attacked by a sniper. Another time he was arrested in Moscow. Somebody closed for some time his web site. Every time one feels the KGB smell and suspects misinformation. Here is one example of overt lie on the part of Kazhegeldin�s media. This summer the staff of the Australian Embassy invited me and my correspondent and provided us with the fact of false references to the non-existent statement of the Australian Embassy that appeared on the Eurasia site, the XXI century paper and in one (probably) friendly to Kazhegeldin electronic publication.
The single fact of lie (not an accidental mistake, but an overt forgery!) smells badly. So do other events initiated by the Eurasia�s boss.
The major part (if not all) of political opposition in Kazakhstan concentrates around Mr. Kazhegeldin. There is some funding there, travels abroad are practiced. Thanks to his lobby, he somehow represents in the US the Kazakh opposition. I am not sure what kind of Kazhegeldin is better. Maybe let him be so as he is? But I am absolutely sure that the pair Nazarbayev-Kazhegeldin should be supplemented by some the third. Who is he?
Last week we published two our materials regarding Mr. Kazhegeldin�s open letter to President Nazarbayev . The texts contradict each other. It�s a misdeed, I am ashamed of it. My journalist was in charge of the first version and I rejected it. Then the second version had been prepared. But unfortunately, both entered the issue. Now we present that second (true) version and ask your pardon, dear readers.
Whenever the results of the investigation on who is the author of the article �Why Has the West Turned on Kazhegeldin?� are ready, we�ll publish them.
N.A.
P.S. I doubt that the Eurasia web site would publish my commentary to its material. I have an offer to you, gentlemen Eurasians. I would publish all full versions of your materials concerning my personality. I preserve my right to comment them. Today it�s our first meeting. Can you offer a similar proposal? I think you should consult Akezhan Magzhanovich. In case you do it, please convey my best and sincere regards to him.
Victor SHELGUNOV
Dec 25
(Central Asian Bulletin)
On December 3 THE GLOBE published the article �Why Has the West Turned on Kazhegeldin?� The editors commented: this material was from Radio Liberty and based on �real facts seriously criticizing Kazhegeldin�.
The material, which was supposed to be taken from Radio Liberty, was absolutely similar to the material compromising Kazhegeldin that were published a week before (November 26) in Caravan and Novoye Pokolenye newspapers. Authors of unmasking opuses suggest an idea that political activity of the RPPK leader is financed by the shadow forces � the British company Trans World Group and the Chornys brothers. What was the aim? They are eager to come back to the Kazakhstani business and chose very difficult way: they give millions of dollars to Kazhegeldin hoping he will become the President of Kazakhstan. The former Prime Minister was accused of swindle, connections with criminal people (�Russian Mafia�), money laundering, etc.
The ordered character of the articles in Caravan and Novoye Pokolenye is obvious. These newspapers are monitored by Rakhat Aliev personally. Hidden by nicknames authors (most probably, there was the single author) did not try to prove or to give arguments, they wished to narrate a terrifying story of Kazhegeldin.
Another thing is THE GLOBE. This newspaper is proud of its independence. It is published by the private company with the support by the western public organization Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The editor-in-chief Nurlan Ablyazov is known as a recognized journalist who painfully reacts to any attempts to connect his name with local media-oligarchs supervising the Kazakhstani press.
If the article �Why Has the West Turned on Kazhegeldin?� had really been broadcast by Radio Liberty, it would not have been necessary to discuss Ablyazov at all. However, an investigation by the former PM�s advocates determined that RADIO LIBERTY DID NOT EITHER PREPARED OR BROADCAST THIS MATERIAL.
What is happening?
The respected edition published a roughly-made falsification, a material compromising the opposition�s leader, with reference to Radio Liberty.
The Radio Liberty administration bewilderedly reacted to this misinformation and is going to demand for refuting. Most probably, soon this refuting will be published. However, we still have some questions.
How could Ablyazov believe to this falsification? Did anybody deceive him or did he himself wish to be deceived?
We would like to believe that was just a misunderstanding and that some bad forces tripped the respected newspaper up. But we think this mistake was not occasional.
First, Ablyazov wrote large comments on the article. Publishing the lampoon against Kazhegeldin, he publicly marveled at how Radio Liberty journalists presented the former PM �as an example of the fighter for democracy� and only now revealed his �shadow� image.
�It is difficult to say whether this story has been again previously projected, this time by Astana, but obviously Radio Liberty is close to truth,� the author of the comments approved �disclosures� falsified by the Kazakhstani special services.
Second, it was not the first annoying mistake by the editor-in-chief. In the early November some Almaty providers blocked an access to the site of the Informational Analytical Center Eurasia. The Center received about four hundred letters from the site visitors. A number of materials were recorded in the guests� book, a separate discussion was held in the �forum�. Many people shared their experience how to overcome the created barrier. From Nursat company Eurasia received a letter by a Nursat officer, who mentioned his real name. He stated that IP traffic was blocked by the Kazakhstani KNB call. The Kazakhstani representative office of Internews Network and the Association of independent electronic media in Central Asia protected the right on information. Their colleagues from Radio Liberty and some independent newspapers supported their demands.
In this situation THE GLOBE was on the opposite site of the �barricades�. On November 12 the newspaper published the article �Nursat Refutes Rumors of the KNB Interference in Internet� by Wallace Kaufman listen to only one side � a representative of Nursat, who, of course, refuted the information of the cooperation with the KNB. The obvious restriction of the access to the site Eurasia was called �the false rumor�. A correspondent of THE GLOBE as if failed to get in touch with the center Eurasia, though he repeatedly tried. Logically, the unsuccessful journalist should have sent a letter to the IAC by E-mail. However, though it seems strange, nobody in Eurasia received a letter from THE GLOBE. Thus, the author protecting Nursat did not strive for objectiveness.
The reason for such a one-sided position is clear if we take into consideration that the telecommunication company Nursat places a lot of advertisements in THE GLOBE. Refuting information by the IAC Eurasia regarding Nursat, the newspaper defended its financial interests. That is a commonly accepted thing. But everybody cannot persist on his absolute independence and to instruct other people. Meanwhile, THE GLOBE represented by its head regularly shifts to the mentor�s tone. The situation is somehow comical as his obvious mistakes Ablyazov tries to present as the triumph of the truth.
On December 21 in the article �Dirty Informational Technologies in Kazakhstan� (the author not mentioned, but, most probably, it is the editor-in-chief) the Nursat story is given as a banal example of the irresponsible journalism by� the IAC Eurasia. It occurred so that the site of the Informational Analytical Center �distributed the false information,� and THE GLOBE restored the truth.
Trying to analyze �dirty technologies�, Ablyazov pretends to be at an inaccessible moral height that allows him to watch the landscape of both �the official� press and press �loyal to Kazhegeldin�. He studiously apologizes to Kazhegeldin for the publication of the false text of the RPPK leader�s appeal to the President Nazarbaev, but he writes: �We were right publishing the information.� He admits that THE GLOBE believed to the false information, but announces that was correct �too acquaintance reader with the available version.�
The role of the most objective and independent, the whitest and most downy is the role that is evidently beyond Ablyazov�s strength, leads to especial flexibility of the thoughts and the deficit of the elementary logic.
Today the sophisticated expert on informational technologies, the editor-in-chief of THE GLOBE pretends to invent the principally new �technology� combining traditional dirty devices with excuses, instructions and ideal struggle for the �absolute truth.�
In the issue of THE GLOBE dated 21.12.99 two contradictory materials were presented. Thanks to this mistake readers had a chance to follow the process of preparation of the article. So, the brief apology to Akezhan Kazhegeldin was the initial variant that was rejected. We say once again that due to the serious mistake both materials were published in the newspaper. Well, below is one of those articles that expresses THE GLOBE�s position and is the final variant.
Dirty informational technologies come to Kazakhstan. These technologies actively used for political purposes, are well known in Russia. THE GLOBE has written about such events in the country. THE GLOBE dated 12.11.99 published the information that Eurasia site (http://eurasia.org.ru) distributed the false information that Nursat blocked the access to the site by the KNB order. The issue of THE GLOBE dated 27.08.99 had the information that the same site seriously tripped the Australian Embassy to Kazakhstan up, as it had added its own false information to the official statement by the embassy. All this is done to cause an artificial scandal and to form public opinion required to the definite circles.
But� everybody makes mistakes. The point is that a Eurasian� twin-site (http:geocities.com/nusha_eurasia) appeared on Internet. THE GLOBE found a text in this site, that was presented as an original variant of Akezhan Kazhegeldin�s appeal to President Nazarbaev. On November 11, 1999 THE GLOBE published this material with reference to the site. Besides, we placed the appeal taken from Eurasia site beside it. We consider we were right publishing these materials. However, THE GLOBE presents its apologies to readers and Akezhan Kazhegeldin. We should have mentioned that this site was a double of Eurasia site and there was nothing except the text in it.
In any case, we say once again that we were correct to acquaintance readers with the available version. It is important to pay attention that the two texts differ in that the appeal published by Eurasia has a conciliatory tone, while the text from the twin-site contains very rigid and categorical demands at the verge of threats. It is quite possible that somebody falsified the latter. But it is also possible that one of Kazhegeldin�s supporters again gives misinformation about him. For whom may it be profitable? After Eurasia presented Kazhegeldin�s appeal, both Radio Liberty, and the IIA Politon spoke about possible dialogue between the President and his main opponent. Obviously, definite circles close to the President disliked that. Meanwhile this misinformation on Internet could be profitable also for either Akezhan Kazhegeldin or people close to him. For example, Eurasia site loyal to Kazhegeldin regularly presents doubtful materials of a scandalous character. Official media often use non-qualitative information as well. In this regard, this is the unity and conflict of opposites.
THE GLOBE would like to clarify this issue. If somebody knows something about origin of the twin-site (http://geocities.com/nasha_eurasia), when it appeared, who finances it, who place the information on it, please get in touch with THE GLOBE editors. We would like to apologize once again. We state again that we were right publishing the information.
FROM THE EDITORS: on December 20 the American newspaper Washington Times published the article �Lunch with dictators� by Thomas B. Evans, who seriously criticized Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbaev. The translation of the article immediately appeared in the site Eurasia, presented as an opinion of Washington Times.
However, THE GLOBE correspondent in the USA Wallace Kaufman reported that �the article �Lunch with dictators� does not express the newspaper�s opinion. The author of the article Thomas B. Evans Jr. is the former congressman from the Republican Party. Today he is a private person. All newspapers publish opinions, with which they disagree. Thus, when Eurasia or any other organization presents an article by a person who does not belong to the newspaper�s staff as the opinion of Washington Times, it is incorrect. This practice is characteristic for Eurasia site, when the latter either purposefully misinterprets or falsely presents materials.
Moreover, Eurasia did not present the article from Washington Times dated December 20 from the column �Letter to the editor�, which praises Nazarbaev. It seems that Eurasia cannot understand such things, as it has nothing to do with journalistic standards.
Thomas B. EVANS
Dec 20
The Washington Times
Thomas B. Evans, Jr. is a former Republican Congressman from Delaware. He is now chairman of the consulting firm The Evans Group, Ltd.
For some inexplicable reason the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been invited to visit Washington this month by the Clinton-Gore administration.
Mr. Nazarbayev is the same dictator who over the past eight years has created a monopoly of riches for himself, his family and carefully selected friends. He has also lured many investors to his country and then pillaged their assets for himself, his family and a few cronies. Knowledgeable sources say that he is the eighth richest man in the world. This, in a country where the per capita income is well below the poverty level.
Mr. Nazarbayev is the same person who promised Vice President Gore a year ago that he would permit a fair and free presidential election in January 1999 and then rigged the disqualification of his main opponent, thereby eliminating any chance of defeat and ensuring the perpetuation of his corrupt regime. Mr. Nazarbayev is also the same person who has had $85 million in ill-gotten gains frozen by the judiciary in Switzerland. Mr. Nazarbayev is the same individual who ordered the destruction of printing presses used to print newspapers questioning his policies.
And Mr. Nazarbayev�s record on human rights is anything but outstanding. There is, quite simply, no freedom of the press, no independent judiciary and no freedom of assembly that could threaten Mr. Nazarbayev�s one-man, one-family rule in Kazakhstan.
In spite of all the above, Kazakhstan still receives millions of dollars in foreign assistance from U.S. taxpayers and hundreds of millions more indirectly through the Export-Import Bank and international financial institutions in which the United States is a major contributor. Is it not just about time that we let dictators like Mr. Nazarbayev know that we are not going to accept this type of behavior? Is it not past time for us to be taken as fools who don�t care about how a country�s ruler treats his people and foreign investors? Is Kazakhstan�s oil so important to us that we would sacrifice basic principles by inviting dictators to dine with our president and vice president? Don�t we ever learn lessons from past mistakes? Doesn�t anyone in the administration remember how in Indonesia President Suharto�s greed, nepotism and general misrule led to his downfall and plunged the country into near chaos? Tolerance of corrupt rule does not contribute to stability. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Have we also learned nothing by cozying up to Victor Chernomyrdin in Russia? Certainly, none of these examples are ancient history.
Surely, this administration does not want to assist in the perpetuation of a regime in Kazakhstan that is the antithesis of all that we stand for as Americans. Both the president and vice president should make it unmistakably clear that the status quo in Kazakhstan is unacceptable.
On Nov. 17, former Prime Minister Akhezan Kazhegeldin, who was prevented from running against Mr. Nazarbayev last January and now heads the leading opposition party (although living in exile in Western Europe), proposed that a national dialogue be launched with a view toward reforming the political and economic system in Kazakhstan and holding free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections. Similar national dialogues were successful in Poland and South Africa, and convening one for Kazakhstan could set the pattern for reform throughout the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore should emphasize to Mr. Nazarbayev that close cooperation between our two countries depends on his agreement to participate in a national dialogue. They should also insist that in order for a national dialogue to be credible, it must be held outside Kazakhstan and should be organized and monitored with the assistance of respected organizations such as the Council of Europe or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore should make support for political and economic reform the centerpiece of their discussions with Mr. Nazarbayev. That is the very least this administration should do at this point, and that is not an unreasonable expectation on the part of the United States.
Kim BODROV
ALMATY, Dec 22 (THE GLOBE)
Yeltsin�s roar when he stopping after each word like a robot promised that the world will not live as Clinton wants, but as they along with Zemin wish did not ceased, as the American President was again instructed, this time by Kazakhstani President. �I will explain your President how it is important not to isolate Russia either economically or politically, said Nazarbaev to reporters after the one-hour conversation in the White House. � If we (I and Clinton?) want Russia to continue to realize liberal reforms, we need to supports its government. Otherwise, it will get into hands of nationalists or other groups. I may say that President Clinton shares my opinion.�
New York Times, the newspaper that told the world about Swiss accounts of President Nazarbaev, reported about this. This time it did not mention any accounts. The rest newspapers, including Los Angeles Times also spoke of the Nazarbaev�s visit in a friendly way, except Washington Times, whose article Kazakhstani dissidents triumphally placed in their site Eurasia. It seems that Kazakhstani President again confirmed his legitimacy and the favorite regime by the USA.
As we speak of moral admonition and valuable instructions, let�s again remind anecdotes. As it is known on December 21 was the 120th anniversary of Iosiph Stalin, the greatest dictator of all times and peoples. That time people feared both anecdotes and men who narrated them! A friend of mine, an old editor told me how once in a publishing house where they published a local newspaper, a sleepy type-setter confused sets and in the word Stalin he put �r� instead of �t�. Immediately NKVD officers came, took all people from the shift and shot them in the yard.
However, after Stalin died, anecdotes blossomed, especially during the period of �thick-eyebrowed� Leonid Brezhnev. Once Leonid Ilyich was awarded the Order of Victory. Everybody wondered what great deeds had he done during the war? Then to explain it the following anecdote appeared:
Once Stalin calls to the Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov:
�Georgy Constantinovich, we should start our attack on 25th.�
�It�s impossible, Iosif Vissarionovich, as divisions have not come and they are not full with people yet.�
�I said, on 25th!.
�Then I am not responsible for the success of the attack.�
Stalin (having blazed with his tobacco-pipe):
�Okay, Georgy Constantinovich, we will seek advice on term of the attack from the colonel Brezhnev.�
In fact, Kazakhstan has confirmed its image of a democratic state, moderated ambitions of the former Prime Minister and concluded many necessary and honorable agreements, including for building of the pipeline from Karachaganak. According to President Nazarbaev, the latter will create 5,000 new jobs.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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