There is distinct group in immigrant community from the former USSR. Many of those who pretend that they fled and left all belongings behind came with wealth of at least unexplained origin. Their escapes were carefully planed. And no matter what they do proclaim everyday on Facebook – they are pretty happy with the regimes. It is true for at least some of the Kazakh exiles. In fact those refugees are metastases of the regime, not the democratic opposition. They may pretend to be useful for applying pressure to the home country, but in fact such refugees are only a burden. Nations pass such escapees from one to another in hope to get rid of the unwanted guests.
Mukhtar Ablyazov left Kazakhstan eleven years ago. He left in hurry: the biggest commercial financial institution in the country and its largest largest loan provider had gapping hole in sheets. Six billion USD were unaccounted. Ablyzov was not alone: top management of the troubled bank fled with him. They all of a sudden felt that they can’t take despotism any longer.
Mukhtar Ablyazov wasn’t the first who retired to victimization tactics. Long before him Rakhat Aliyev, Nazarbaev’s son-in-law and dictator’s right hand fled to Austria and declared that he is being oppressed because of his political views. It was hard to believe as, among other, he was former deputy chief of the KNB state security service (Kazakhstan’s successor to KGB). For Rakhat Aliyev it ended not exactly as planned. On 24 February 2015 he was found hanged in his solitary prison cell in Vienna. The death was later declared suicide.
Mukhtar Ablyazov is way smarter than Aliyev. He understood the importance of PR, political pressure and had some ties prepared. He did not hesitate to dispense some aid to a bunch of murky funds, like the Open Dialogue Foundation. The later is, in general, his advocacy group with bold trace of controversies behind. ODF (Fundacja Otwarty Dialog) maintains mukhtarablyazov.org – a rather outdated personal site of Mukhtar Ablyzov.
DEPORTATION REQUESTS AND POLITICAL MOTIVATION
As for now three countries are requesting deportation of Mukhtar Ablyazov based on charges of bank fraud and embezzlement. It is Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Ukraine. How could such different countries be ‘politically motivated’ in one way? Perhaps we should ask ODF for explanation. But before we get it let’s just remind our readers that BTA Bank was active in all three states. And all three state consider themselves robbed by the BTA management. There is nothing political in being robbed.
The closest call for deportation so far was made by Russia. In 2015 the court of Lyon issued deportation order for Mukhtar Ablyazov. It took enormous efforts of Ablyazov’s campaigners to overthrow this order in the French highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat.
Russian deportation request is the only reason why Ablyzov and his allies are posting seemingly senseless critic of Putin’s regime. That may come in handy if and when another deportation request looms.
But Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan aren’t only countries that are searching for Mukhtar Ablyazov. UK High Court issued an arrest warrant for him for conspiring in breach of the freezing order. Thus Mukhtar Ablyazov can’t get to his extensive real estate in UK without the risk of being arrested. Fun fact of the day: he used to live next to Nazarbaev’s daughter Dariga, the widow of Rakhat Aliyev.
Despite numerous courts lost and virtually anyone in EU is in the know of the true reasons behind the asylum request there is no viable exit strategy. He will became a burden until the more pragmatic approach will take the stand.
