Kazakhstan's Democratic Forces Forum |
President Nazarbaev misinformed foreign mass mediaYesterday, October 13, 2005, at a joint briefing held together with the U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice President Nazarbaev misinformed foreign mass media Asked by a CNN reporter, “Your two daughters: one controls mass media, the other – the principal bank in Kazakhstan. Political opposition faces arrests. To your mind, what proves that you are not an ordinary dictator in this case?”, President Nazarbaev said: “Khabar television channel set up by my daughter (Dariga Nazarbaeva – press service) is a state-run company, not her property. My second daughter (Dinara Kulibaeva – press service) does not run business. She works for the educational foundation”. In view of the above, press service of the movement “For a Fair Kazakhstan” is empowered to make the following statement: Firstly, the Khabar television channel is a part of a joint-stock company Khabar Agency. Since 2000, it is not the “state-run company’, as President Nazarbaev has said. Private companies (Kaztsentr-TV joint-stock company and Kazakhstan Teleradio Corporation joint-stock company) are the owners of a 50% share of the joint-stock company in question. General public knows little as to how present private Khabar shareholders managed to privatize the former state-run company without paying a tiyn into the budget, or who the real shareholders of the above firms are. We presume that Mr. Nazarbaev, who has a privileged access to this channel, obtains the exact information as to who stands behind those firms and is armed with information on the subject; Secondly, according to the information posted on the official web site of “Kazakhstan Stock Exchange” joint-stock company, over 30% of shares of the “People’s Savings Bank of Kazakhstan” joint-stock company are controlled by T. A. Kulibaev (N. Nazarbaev’s son-in-law) and D. N. Kulibaeva (N. Nazarbaev’s daughter), i.e. close relatives of N. Nazarbaev. As of March 1, 2005, T. A. Kulibaev and D. N. Kulibaeva owned 50% respectively of paid authorized capital of the “Firm ALMEKS” limited company, which owned a 63% share of the above mentioned bank. Therefore, we believe that in his statement distributed by news agencies President Nazarbaev misinformed the U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other representatives of foreign mass media. The press service of the movement “For a Fair Kazakhstan” hopes that Mr. Nazarbaev double checks his data very soon, talks to his relatives and releases a respective refutation, either personally or via his press service. October 14, 2005, Almaty Press service of the Movement “For a Fair Kazakhstan” |
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