ASTANA – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has sacked his son-in- law as head of the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, after a strike at the fund’s core oil and gas asset erupted into one of the Central Asian state’s deadliest clashes in decades.
Mr Nazarbayev (71) had said last week that he would fire billionaire Timur Kulibayev, one of Kazakhstan’s richest and most influential people, after the December 16th-17th riots in the west of the country left at least 16 people dead and more than 100 wounded.
The bloodshed, which occurred on Independence Day, dealt a serious blow to the stable image Mr Nazarbayev has touted as his big achievement in the vast nation of 16.6 million, Central Asia’s largest economy and oil producer.
Deputy prime minister Umirzak Shukeyev was appointed to run Samruk-Kazyna, which manages state assets worth about $80 billion (€61 billion), according to prime minister Karim Masimov.
Mr Nazarbayev, a former steelworker who has pursued market-driven policies and overseen massive foreign direct investment, is under international pressure to investigate the violence.
The clashes in the Mangistau region were centred on the oil town of Zhanaozen, 150km (93 miles) from the Caspian Sea. – (Reuters)