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A New Direction for Kazakhstan?
Last week, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed 41-year old Karim Massimov Prime Minister, ending months of speculation as to who would replace Danial Akhmetov, who had served in the post since June 2003. Akhmetov remains in the cabinet as Minister of Defense, the first civilian to hold this post.
This change in government seems designed to send a message to Kazakhstan’s major foreign partners——that Astana is serious about making the political reforms necessary to satisfy the OSCE but will do so without alienating friends in Beijing and in Moscow.
Nazarbayev is eager to gain the OSCE chairmanship for 2009, a decision now put off until summer 2007 and the new facelift in Astana gives him the best chance of obtaining this.
Both Karim Massimov, and the new Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin will be good salesmen for Kazakhstan in the U.S. and U.K., the two biggest critics of the Kazakh bid. Although the 46 year old Tazhin has little diplomatic experience, as National Security Council head he has been a regular companion of Nazarbayev during trips abroad. With U.K. training as a political scientist, Tazhin has been the architect of many earlier Kazakh efforts at political institution building.
Massimov, who was Akhmetov’s deputy at the time of his appointment, has made a strong impression in most western capitals, speaking openly about the need for Kazakhstan to speed up political reform, and better free the economy from corruption
