The Next “New Thing” From Rakhat?

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal has a very interesting investigative piece that touches on both ”Kazakhgate” and the seedier side of US companies that do consulting for foreign governments (warning the article’s link will only last seven days). According to the article, Dariga Nazarbayeva had hired a US firm called GlobalOptions (which appears to be a “fixer” for foreign governments and international corporations alike) in 2003 to gather intelligence on the progress of the “Kazakhgate” trial of James Giffen. Furthermore, the documents gathered by Global Options now are allegedly in the possession of Rakhat Aliyev. Besides being an interesting development in the long saga of the never-ending “Kazakhgate” trial, this information shines an interesting light on the rocky family relations of the Nazarbayevs. Was Dariga in 2003 trying to help her father by gathering information on the trial, or was she gathering ”kompromat” for use against her father? Afterall, this was about the same time she was developing her infamous Asar party, which challenged her father's party in the 2004 parliamentary elections and eventually led to her downfall. Was this operation part of a long-term plan to undo her father's hold on power? Regardless of the original intentions of collecting this information, given that the documents now sit with Rakhat in Europe, if there is anything incriminating in them, we will probably hear about it soon enough. Unless, of course, he is hoping to use them as “kompromat” to buy himself back into good graces, which is highly unlikely at this point. Keep an eye out on Rakhat’s webpage kaztoday.ru for some leaks in the near future. Thanks to GlobalOptions, “Kazakhgate” might get interesting again.