Kazakh Leader Visits U.S. - September 2006

Kazakh, U.S. Presidents To Meet in Washington

Sep. 29	MosNews	Kazakh President Meets American Jewish Leaders in U.S.
Sep. 29	The White House	Remarks by Presidents Bush and Nazarbayev After Meeting
Sep. 29	The White House	Joint U.S.-Kazakhstan Statement
Sep. 29	RFE/RL	"Kazakhstan's Domestic Politics on a World Stage"
Sep. 28	NY Times	For Kazakh Leader’s Visit, U.S. Seeks a Balance
Sep. 26	Reuters	Leader's U.S. visit mixes Kazakh oil and democracy
Sep. 25	Associated Press	U.S. Pursues Closer Ties With Kazakhstan
Sep. 25	Associated Press	Kazakhstan warms up to West, but democracy remains a problem
Sep. 14	UPI	Analysis: Use religion to fight terrorism
Sep. 12	The White House	Bush Announces Nazarbayev Visit
Aug. 29	Washington Post	With Kazakh's Visit, Bush Priorities Clash

See also:

NCSJ Country Report

U.S. International Religious Freedom Report

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MosNews - 09.29.2006

Kazakh President Meets American Jewish Leaders in U.S. (l.-r.) Joseph Smukler, Anti-Defamation League Lesley Weiss, NCSJ  Dan Mariaschin, B'nai B'rith International  Joseph Zissels, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress  Dov Zakheim, American Jewish Congress  Alexander Mashkevich, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress  President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev  Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Appeal of Conscience Foundation  Rabbi Israel Singer, World Jewish Congress Michael Gelman, United Jewish Communities (photo: Roman Spektor, EAJC)

During his official visit to the United States Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with leaders of the Jewish Community in the U.S. 

The meeting organized by Alexander Machkevitch, chairman of the Almaty-based Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, was attended by the leaders of major American Jewish organizations — the World Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith International, Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Anti-Defamation League, National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). Alexander Machkevitch also took part in the discussion, his press-center has reported. 

The Jewish leaders praised a high level of observance of human rights, religious and ethnic freedoms in Kazakhstan and voiced their support for Nazarbayev’s efforts aimed at curbing political extremism in the Central Asian country. 

“The session emphasized the lack of any organized or government-led Anti-Semitism, which we saw under the Soviet regime,” Machkevitch told the press after the meeting. The parties “expressed great interest in a discussion on strengthening tolerance within the Muslim community of Kazakhstan, traditionally known for its respect for other confessions.” 

The parties also discussed the ongoing international inter-ethnic and inter-faith dialogue held under the aegis of the Kazakh president. “My American colleagues were glad to see chief rabbis of Israel Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar attend the Congress of world and traditional religion leaders in Astana,” chairman of the EAJC said. “We would like to strengthen the U.S. Jewry’s role in that peacemaking process.” 

After the talks the Jewish leaders and Nursultan Nazarbayev attended an opening ceremony of the Kazakhstan Independence Monument in Washington and a gala reception at the embassy of Kazakhstan. 

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New York Times - 09.28.2006

For Kazakh Leader’s Visit, U.S. Seeks a Balance

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ILAN GREENBERG

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Sept. 26 — When Vice President Dick Cheney came to this oil-rich Central Asian nation this spring he expressed admiration for what he called its “political development.” Yet just a day before his visit began, the authoritarian government effectively shut down the two most prominent American democracy organizations working here.

While American officials are negotiating to reverse the government’s decision, they have yet to complain about it publicly.

As President Bush prepares to receive the Kazakh president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, at a state dinner in Washington on Friday, the episode reflects the delicate balance the administration has struck with a country of growing strategic importance that has a record of corruption, flawed elections and rights violations, including the killings of two opposition leaders in the last year in disputed circumstances. 

Critics here say the episode also illustrates the Bush administration’s willingness to sacrifice democracy, a centerpiece of its foreign policy, when it conflicts with other foreign policy goals. 

“There are four enemies of human rights: oil, gas, the war on terror and geopolitical considerations,” said Yevgeny A. Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, an organization that has received financing from the American Embassy and the National Endowment for Democracy. “And we have all four.”

The Bush administration has promoted democratic reforms in Kazakhstan for years, but it also appears eager to mollify a president who has been a comparatively moderate Muslim leader in Central Asia, who has allowed NATO aircraft headed to Afghanistan to fly over the country and sent a company of soldiers to Iraq, and who controls vast resources of oil and gas, much of it extracted by American companies.

In a meeting on Monday in New York with Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke generally about democracy and human rights in Kazakhstan, a senior State Department official said, but did not raise the matter of the two democracy groups — the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican Institute. 

In Washington, Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the White House was aware of the problem with the institutes but added that he could not say whether President Bush would raise it this week, since the discussions were not scripted in advance. Still, he said, “Democratization is a very important part of the agenda.” 

The backlash against promotion of democracy is by no means limited to Kazakhstan. The institutes, which are nonprofit, nonpartisan groups financed by the United States government, have been eyed warily not just here but in Russia, China and an array of authoritarian Central Asian countries that were alarmed by the “color revolutions” in Serbia, Georgia and, particularly, Ukraine.

As outlined in a recent report by the National Endowment for Democracy, many of them, including Kazakhstan, have followed the lead of Russia and severely restricted nongovernmental organizations. Some countries, notably Belarus, but also the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, have closed them down altogether. 

For Kazakhstan, as for the Bush administration, the coming visit has created an opportunity for improving relations that have been strained in recent years, even as Russia has taken advantage of its own political and economic influence.

The strains have stemmed from American concerns over corruption, restrictions on the news media and President Nazarbayev’s consolidation of political control.

The Kazakh government has its own concerns with American policy. They include a criminal case in New York against James H. Giffen, an American businessman, that implicates Mr. Nazarbayev in a bribery scheme dating from the 1990’s, and lukewarm American support for Kazakhstan’s bid to preside over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Here in Kazakhstan, Mr. Nazarbayev’s visit has been portrayed as a chance for him to enhance his international prestige by improving relations with the United States. “The time has come when we can raise our relations to a completely new level,” Mr. Nazarbayev told reporters in Astana earlier this month.

Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world in area but with only 15 million people, the majority of them Muslims, has experienced an energy-fueled economic boom that has transformed it into a regional power.

Mr. Nazarbayev is genuinely popular inside the country, though that popularity is certainly nurtured by the government’s control of television, which provides lavish, uncritical coverage. Even independent surveys of voters leaving the polls showed him winning re-election handily last December, with a vote as high as 82 percent, compared with the official result of 91 percent. The lower figure came from a poll financed by the International Republican Institute.

Mr. Nazarbayev’s opponents said the government’s need to pad what would have been a clear victory anyway highlighted a growing trend toward authoritarianism. Oraz Jandosov, a co-chairman of a democratic opposition party, True Bright Path, said the most disturbing consequences of the power and impunity enveloping Mr. Nazarbayev’s government were the deaths of two opposition leaders.

One, Zamanbek N. Nurkadilov, was found shot three times, once in the head, last November. His death was subsequently declared a suicide. The other, Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, was killed in February along with two bodyguards on a road outside Almaty, the country’s biggest city.

In August, an aide in the upper house of Parliament, Yerzhan Utembayev, and several officers of the secret services were convicted of those killings, though few here believed the declared motive: that Mr. Utembayev had been angered that Mr. Sarsenbaiuly had accused him of being a drunk in a newspaper interview three years earlier.

The actions against the American democracy programs followed soon after Mr. Sarsenbaiuly’s killing, reflecting a trend to stifle any open discussion of the country’s problem.

In a letter to the American Embassy, a copy of which was shown to The New York Times, Kazakh prosecutors charged the two institutes under a law that forbids “material assistance” to political parties. The institutes were accused of “the handing over of materials” and “illegal instances of transport” during their work with political and civic groups.

The accusations fit a pattern of harassment in the months leading up to last year’s election, when government tax and financial agencies repeatedly investigated and audited dozens of private organizations. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the institution Mr. Nazarbayev hopes to lead as chairman in 2009, criticized the election for “a number of significant shortcomings,” including “an atmosphere of intimidation.”

Four American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing negotiations over the institutes, said neither institute had paid for or otherwise supported partisan activity.

Two people involved in the discussions said former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the chairwoman and chairman of the Democratic and Republican institutes respectively, had written a letter to Mr. Bush urging him to raise the issue with Mr. Nazarbayev during his visit.

American officials continue to express support for Kazakhstan’s opposition and for democracy here in general.

Mr. Cheney, when he visited, met over breakfast with opposition leaders for an hour and 20 minutes in a hotel in Astana, the capital. Mr. Jandosov, who was there, said he welcomed the chance to explain “what the real situation was,” but expressed regret that the meeting came the morning after Mr. Cheney appeared in public with Mr. Nazarbayev and expressed support for him.

Murat Laumulin of the Kazakhstan Institute of Strategic Studies, a research organization with close ties to the government, said Mr. Nazarbayev’s government had made concessions to the United States in the field of energy and in the Bush administration’s fight against Islamic terrorism, among other areas, and thus merited a reprieve in demands for swift democratization.

“Kazakhstan has gone along with a lot of the American oil agenda with the unspoken understanding that the Kazakhstan population is not going to be provoked,” Mr. Laumulin said. “There isn’t to be a ‘color revolution’ here, and for five to seven years we don’t have to worry about needing to introduce genuine democracy. We get a strategic pause.”

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Associated Press - 09.25.2006

Kazakhstan warms up to West as it pumps more oil, but democracy remains a problem

By Bagila Bukharbayeva 

(AP) - President Nursultan Nazarbayev's record on democracy has been questioned and his image tarnished by allegations of graft, but as Kazakhstan pumps more oil, he is finding an increasingly warm welcome in the West.

With the other four former Soviet Central Asian nations being either much more authoritarian, too unstable, too poor, or a combination of all three, Kazakhstan emerges as the West's logical ally in the strategic energy-rich region, lying north of Afghanistan and Iran and neighboring Russia and China.

Nazarbayev's desire to have better links with the West will get a new boost Friday with his White House meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.

Ahead of the trip, which starts Tuesday with a visit to the Bush family home in Maine to meet his father, former President George H.W. Bush, Nazarbayev said "the time has come when we can raise our relations to a completely new level."

The White House called Kazakhstan "an important strategic partner in Central Asia." It said the presidents would discuss democracy promotion, the war on terror, energy diversification and advancement of freedom and security.

Nazarbayev has been at the helm of the world's ninth largest country for 17 years, overseeing its notable economic advance after the 1991 Soviet breakup. The economy has grown around 10 percent annually in the past eight years.

But democratic reforms have become a stumbling bloc for Nazarbayev's government.

The 2004 parliamentary vote produced a legislature without a single opposition lawmaker. In December, Nazarbayev was re-elected with 91 percent of the vote, according to official results. Western observers called both votes flawed.

Two of Nazarbayev's most outspoken critics were killed over the past year _ a worrying signal in a country that had no culture of political murders. Authorities have said both slayings were nonpolitical.

Nazarbayev's image has also been damaged by allegations that he received millions of dollars in bribes from multinational oil companies through his former U.S. adviser on oil contracts, who is currently under investigation in the United States. Nazarbayev has dismissed the allegations as "insinuations and a provocation."

Bush has said he wants to wean America off its dependence on oil, especially as much of it currently comes from the Middle East, part of the front line in the U.S.-led war against terror.

Bolat Abilov, co-chairman of the opposition Nagyz Ak Zhol party, said the United States cannot ignore that in the next 10 years Kazakhstan will be producing 3.5 million barrels of oil a day, becoming one of the world's top oil producers.

That's why "democracy will be pushed down to miscellaneous issues" during Nazarbayev's talks with Bush, he said.

"All the country will get is that the government will have his (Nazarbayev's) new photographs with Bush to publish for the next five years," he said, referring to the fact that Nazarbayev was last invited to Washington in 2001.

Nazarbayev has maintained good relations with his two powerful neighbors, Russia and China. At the same time he has worked to build a durable bridge to the West, seeking a deterrent to potential restoration of Russian domination and Chinese expansion.

As part of that policy, the nation of 15 million is bidding to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009. It would be the first time any of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, which also include Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, would hold such a prestigious international position.

Nazarbayev also wants recognition of his country's economic success and will try to present Kazakhstan to Bush as a different story in volatile Central Asia _ a different "stan," as he put it at a recent news conference.

"Many today see no difference between countries whose names end with `stan,'" he said.

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Associated Press - 09.25.2006

U.S. Pursues Closer Ties With Kazakhstan

By ANNE GEARAN

(AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Monday with Kazakhstan's foreign minister as the U.S. sought closer ties to the oil-rich country despite what critics call its disturbing backslide toward autocracy. 

Before the meeting, Rice did not answer when asked whether human rights or energy would top the agenda for the meeting with her Kazakh counterpart. The session on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly sets up a White House invitation for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday. 

Afterward, the State Department said Rice's session with Kazakh Foreign Affairs Minister Kassymzhomart Taokaev, held in her suite at the opulent Waldorf-Astoria hotel, included discussions about Kazakh cooperation in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also covered hopes for "a multidimensional relationship with Kazakhstan, which includes U.S. encouragement for continuing reforms," the department said. 

The State Department's assistant secretary of state for human rights, Barry Lowenkron, accompanied Rice to the meeting. 

Nazarbayev's trip starts Tuesday with a private visit to the Bush family home in Maine to meet President Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush. 

"The time has come when we can raise our relations to a completely new level," the Kazakh leader said before leaving for the United States. 

Kazakhstan has grown in importance because of its huge oil reserves. The vast Central Asian republic, which is the size of Western Europe, is expected to pump 3.5 million barrels of oil a day in the coming decade. 

With the other four former Soviet Central Asian nations being more authoritarian, too unstable, too poor, or a combination of all three, Kazakhstan has emerged as the West's logical ally in the strategic energy-rich region north of Afghanistan and Iran. 

The Bush administration also has praised Kazakhstan as a model because of its decision in the 1990s to dismantle nuclear weapons it acquired under Soviet rule. 

Nazarbayev has held tight control for 17 years, overseeing Kazakhstan's notable economic advance after the 1991 Soviet breakup. The economy has grown around 10 percent annually in the past eight years. 

But democratic reforms have stumbled and Nazarbayev's image has been tarnished by allegations of graft. 

Nazarbayev was re-elected with 91 percent of the vote in December balloting that international observers called flawed. The 2004 parliamentary vote produced a legislature without a single opposition lawmaker. 

In July, Nazarbayev signed legislation that sets up new regulations for media organizations, a law that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called "a step backward" for media freedoms. Freedom House, a New York-based pro-democracy group, said the law "will greatly threaten freedom of expression and freedom of the press." 

Two of Nazarbayev's most outspoken critics were killed over the past year - a worrying signal in a country that had no culture of political murders. Authorities have said both slayings were nonpolitical. 

The U.S. has criticized the election and Kazakhstan's human rights record, but kept its comments mild. 

Associated Press Writer Bagila Bukharbayeva contributed to this report from Almaty, Kazakhstan. 

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Reuters - 09.26.2006

Leader's U.S. visit mixes Kazakh oil and democracy

By Michael Steen

ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev flies to the United States on Tuesday for a visit that may be smiles and backslapping on the surface but will raise difficult questions for Washington and the West.

Nazarbayev has been in power since 1989, when Kazakhstan was still a Soviet republic, but has yet to preside over any poll judged free and fair. Moreover, U.S. prosecutors say -- but he denies -- he has accepted $60 million in oil company bribes.

Balanced against that, this vast oil-producing Central Asian state is the most economically advanced and politically stable of the five ex-Soviet "stans" that also include Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

And, as Nazarbayev told reporters before his trip: "Of the $50 billion that we've attracted as investment to Kazakhstan, a third belongs to American companies."

During his first trip to the United States in five years, Nazarbayev will meet President George W. Bush on Friday and spend time with George Bush senior at their holiday home.

Skilled at balancing competing interests, he is equally welcome in the White House's Rose Garden, the Kremlin corridors, or the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

What attracts all three powers is the fact that Kazakhstan will join the top 10 oil producers in a decade, is doling out oil and gas exploration and production licenses and still has decisions ahead on routes for pipelines.

For Washington, and other Western capitals, that may sap the will to publicly upbraid Nazarbayev on such issues as democratic reform.

"The biggest rough spot we have is the slow movement in terms of furthering democratic reforms and development of civil society," a Western diplomat in the capital Astana said.

Apart from a string of flawed elections, civil liberties have been deteriorating with a new, more restrictive media law and a draft law that will tighten already draconian laws that forbid any demonstration not sanctioned by the authorities.

THANKS FOR THE CARROT

Against this backdrop, Nazarbayev is still publicly pressing for the 2009 annual chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a European rights group that also conducts election monitoring.

A consensus decision by its 55 members -- including the United States and Russia -- has to be made by December. Russia backs Kazakhstan while Western states had tried, in vain, to use the chair as a carrot to encourage a democratic reform.

There were signs that Washington and London wanted quietly to urge Kazakhstan to postpone its application in order to save face all round, but Nazarbayev said this month he still wanted 2009. He denied he would lobby Bush on the issue.

"This is really one of those things that's like making sausage," the Western diplomat said. "it's not something you want to do out in public."

The allegations against Nazarbayev about bribe-taking were made in a case that has yet to go to court. U.S. officials say it is solely the prosecution of a single U.S. citizen, James Giffen, who used to work for Nazarbayev and pleads innocence.

For Nazarbayev, the trip to Washington is also a rare chance to raise Kazakhstan's profile outside the former Soviet Union.

"Many people still can't tell the difference between countries that end in 'stan," he said, in reference to other ex-Soviet Central Asian republics that have suffered civil unrest and even, in the case of Tajikistan, civil war.

Unfortunately for him, it has so far just served as free publicity for British comedian Baron Sacha Cohen whose mockumentary about Borat -- a sexist, racist, and made-up Kazakh television reporter -- is about to hit the cinemas.

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United Press International - 09.14.2006

Analysis: Use religion to fight terrorism

By HARBAKSH SINGH NANDA

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (UPI) -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who as a communist helped Soviet-era Moscow maintain control over his country, is now working toward eradicating the last vestiges of communism: by encouraging his countrymen to turn toward religion. 

The state in the former USSR went out of its way to curb religious thoughts' in contrast the independent Kazakhstan is witnessing a mushroom growth of religious sites across the nation. 

"Thousands of mosques have been built and many more will follow," Nazarbayev told reporters in Astana at the conclusion of the second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions -- the first was held in September 2003. 

Nazarbayev, one of the top leaders of the former communist USSR, is personally making efforts to introduce Kazakhs to world religions. But despite the growth of religious sites, not many people attend the congregations. 

Driving from the airport to the downtown area of Kazakhstan's young capital Astana, the taxi driver pointed at the shining gold dome of a picturesque mosque and said not many people visit the shrine. "I hardly noticed any cars ever parked in the parking lot of the mosque," Zhaken Toulebayev said. "It's a pity." 

A growing economy and abundant natural resources are not the only reasons Kazakhstan claims to be the best of the "Stans" among the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Religious tolerance is one of the hallmarks of the nation that gained independence in 1991 following the collapse of Soviet Union. 

Kazakhstan, world's ninth-largest country and home to just 15 million people, is almost evely split between Christian and Muslims. The country boasts of religious tolerance that has led to the peaceful coexistence of over 40 religions in the country. In a country where religious tendencies were suppressed for more than half a century, today Kazakhstan boasts more than 40 different faiths, and the number of people with peaceable religious convictions is steadily mounting. As testament to this, Kazakhstan welcomed Pope John Paul II in 2001. 

Nazarbayev prides in himself in the multi-religious fabric of the country. 

"We often say that representatives of more than 40 religions coexist peacefully in Kazakhstan. This is more than empty words. In the last 15 years there has not been a single case of a newspaper or television station harassing the followers of any particular faith. This is banned by our constitution. No one has been punished on the basis of religion over these years, and the explanation is simple: there is an overall atmosphere of tolerance and understanding of all faiths in our society," the president said at the inauguration of the religious conference. 

The nation witnessed a state-sponsored two-day blitz which saw the leaders of 41 delegations representing Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Shinto, Taoism and Hinduism, as well as non-governmental organizations and politicians representing several governments assembled in Astana calling for an end to the misuse of religion to fight wars and conflicts. 

As the world observed the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, the Astana Congress debated a common Declaration on Religion, Society and International Security. 

A declaration was adopted Wednesday that called for working "together to tackle and ultimately eliminate prejudice, ignorance and misrepresentation of other religions" as a contribution in the global fight against terrorism. 

"These common views include the condemnation of terrorism on the basis "that justice can never be established through fear and bloodshed and that the use of such means is a violation and betrayal of any faith that appeals to human goodness and dialogue." 

President Nazarbayev said the declaration capped five years of work following the terrorist attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11. 

In the face of global threats, the world has united in the goal of eradicating terrorism and confirming the values of humanism. 

"An ideology of tolerance and dialogue must confront the ideology of terrorism," Nazarbayev told delegates at the conference. "The global nature of interfaith contradictions and religious dialogue allows us to think that (the) U.N. will declare one of the following years (the) International Year of Religious and Cultural Tolerance," he suggested. 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization commended Nazarbayev for establishing a model of peaceful coexistence in the country, an outstanding example of peace and accord for other nations. 

"I would like to complement his efforts, directed at consolidation of dialogue between religious communities in Kazakhstan," Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO director general said at the conference. 

The Chief Rabbi of Israel called for a greater role for religious leaders in resolving political crises. 

"We -- as the leaders of religions -- should find a bridge of mutual understanding, a bridge to dialogue, in order to solve all conflicts by means of religious efforts, but not through diplomacy or politics," Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger said at the Religious Congress. 

Secretary-General of the World Muslim League, Abdallah Bin Abdul Muhsin At-Turki, said it was wrong to link terrorism with specific peoples or religions. 

Kazakhstan is definitely opening up to the world religions and it has state's blessings. 

Nazarbayev said: "We should endeavor best efforts in order to root out ideology of terrorism and maintain material values of humanism." 

"It is very important that we contribute in countering terrorism with the ideology of tolerance. There hardly exists something in the world comparable to potential of religion," the former communist leader said.

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Washington Post - 08.28.2006

With Kazakh's Visit, Bush Priorities Clash

Autocrat Leads an Oil-Rich Country

By Peter Baker

President Bush launched an initiative this month to combat international kleptocracy, the sort of high-level corruption by foreign officials that he called "a grave and corrosive abuse of power" that "threatens our national interest and violates our values." The plan, he said, would be "a critical component of our freedom agenda."

Three weeks later, the White House is making arrangements to host the leader of Kazakhstan, an autocrat who runs a nation that is anything but free and who has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of pocketing the bulk of $78 million in bribes from an American businessman. Not only will President Nursultan Nazarbayev visit the White House, people involved say, but he also will travel to the Bush family compound in Maine.

Nazarbayev's upcoming visit, according to analysts and officials, offers a case study in the competing priorities of the Bush administration at a time when the president has vowed to fight for democracy and against corruption around the globe. Nazarbayev has banned opposition parties, intimidated the press and profited from his post, according to the U.S. government. But he also sits atop massive oil reserves that have helped open doors in Washington.

Nazarbayev is hardly the only controversial figure received at the top levels of the Bush administration. In April, the president welcomed to the Oval Office the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who has been accused of rigging elections. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea, who has been found to have millions of dollars stashed in overseas bank accounts.

But the Kazakh leader has received especially warm treatment, given that the same government that will host him next month plans to go to trial in federal court in January to prove that he was paid off in the 1990s by a U.S. banker seeking to influence oil rights. Although the banker faces prison time, Nazarbayev has not been charged and has called the allegations illegitimate.

In addition to Nazarbayev's upcoming visit, Vice President Cheney went to the former Soviet republic in May to praise him as a friend, a trip that drew criticism because it came the day after Cheney criticized Russia for retreating from democracy. The latest invitation has sparked outrage among Kazakh opposition.

"It raises the question of how serious is the determination to fight kleptocracy," said Rinat Akhmetshin, director of the International Eurasian Institute, who works for Kazakh opposition. "Nazarbayev is a symbol of kleptocracy . . . and yet they are bringing him in. That sends a very clear signal to people inside Kazakhstan who are very well aware that he stole money from them."

The White House declined to comment because it has not yet officially announced the visit, but Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Evan Feigenbaum was in Kazakhstan last week working out details, and Kazakh officials said the trip will take place in late September. A spokesman for former president George H.W. Bush confirmed that Nazarbayev will visit Kennebunkport as part of his U.S. stay. "An old friend of his was in the U.S. and he extended an invitation," Bush spokesman Tom Frechette said.

An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the invitation has not been announced, said President Bush often meets with leaders of countries "that are not yet democracies" and uses the time to push for more freedom. "We've always been frank in our discussions with government officials from Kazakhstan about our concerns about lack of democratic movement, and we always press them for democratic reform," the official said.

Kazakhstan, a vast nation of 15 million on the Central Asian steppe, has emerged as an increasingly important player in the world energy market. With the largest crude oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region, Kazakhstan pumps 1.2 million barrels a day and exports 1 million of that. The Kazakh government hopes to boost production to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2015, rivaling Iran. U.S. and Russian companies and governments have competed for access to its oil.

Nazarbayev, 66, a blast-furnace operator-turned-Communist functionary, has led Kazakhstan since 1990, when it was part of the Soviet Union, and has since won a series of tainted elections. His government has banned or refused to register opposition parties, closed newspapers and harassed advocacy groups. Two opposition leaders were found dead of gunshots in disputed circumstances.

But the Bush administration considers Nazarbayev a friendly, stable moderate in a region of harsher, sometimes hostile dictators and has been hopeful he will open up and cleanse his government. The Kazakh government under Nazarbayev recently embarked on an anti-corruption campaign that has resulted in arrests of mid-level officials.

"I really do think he has learned how to be clean," said Martha Brill Olcott, a Kazakhstan specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "He has learned a lot more about how you can promote to some degree divestiture [of assets]. Most of his holdings are, I wouldn't say transparent, but they're more so."

Others aren't sure. "When the United States is transparently soft on friendly dictators like Nazarbayev, it undermines the effort to be tough on not-so-friendly dictators," said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch.

Transparency International, an anti-corruption organization, ranks Kazakhstan 2.6 on a 10-point scale, placing it 107th out of 159 countries graded. That's a decline from a 3.0 grade and 65th place in 2000.

"You don't have free elections, and the press is pretty much controlled by his family, and a significant portion of assets in Kazakhstan are directly or indirectly controlled by his family," said Miklos Marschall, the group's regional director. "But on the other hand, unlike other Central Asian countries, he is willing to initiate some step-by-step reforms. From our perspective, he's not the worst."

Nazarbayev visited the Bush White House in 2001 -- before the Justice Department filed a case in 2003 alleging that he had taken bribes and before the president issued a 2004 proclamation banning corrupt foreign officials from visiting the United States. A State Department official said hundreds of foreign officials have been denied visas under Bush's proclamation but could not explain how it would not apply in Nazarbayev's case.

U.S. prosecutors have charged businessman James H. Giffen with steering $78 million in bribes to Nazarbayev and one of his former prime ministers in the 1990s in exchange for influence in oil transactions. In addition to cash transferred to secret Swiss bank accounts, Nazarbayev, originally identified in court papers simply as "KO-2," allegedly received two snowmobiles, an $80,000 speedboat, fur coats for his wife and daughter, and tuition for his daughter at a Swiss boarding school and later George Washington University.

Giffen's attorneys have argued that he is not guilty because his actions were sanctioned by the U.S. government. Giffen says he disclosed his activities to agencies including the CIA and was encouraged to continue for national security reasons. The Justice Department is appealing a court decision allowing the defense. The case is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 16.

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