Kazakhstan Country Page

 

   

Kazakhstan Data Kazakhstan Summary NCSJ report (below) CIA World Factbook U.S. State Dept. - background U.S. State Dept. - Human Rights U.S. State Dept. - Religious Freedom Kazakhstan Embassy U.S. Embassy Astana About NCSJ Country Reports Return to Directory

Population: 15.4 million Ethnic Composition: Kazakh 53.4%, Russian 30%, Ukrainian 3.7%, Uzbek 2.5%, German 2.4%, Uygur 1.4%, Tatar 1.7%, other (Chechens, Poles, Belarusians, Koreans) 4.9%  Religion: 47% Muslim (mostly Sunni), 44% Russian Orthodox Christian, 2% Protestant, 7% other Jewish population: 15,000-30,000 2009 Aliyah  (emigration to Israel): 160 Size: 2,717,300 sq km Capital: Astana Major cities: Almaty, Karaganda, Chimkent Freedom House Rating:  Not Free

Currency: 148 tenge = $1 GDP: $107 billion (2009 est.) GDP per capita: $11,400 (2009 est.) GDP Growth: -1.8% (2009 est.) Head of State: President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev Head of Government: Prime Minister Karim Massimov Foreign Minister: Kanat Saudabayev Ambassador to United States: Erlan A. Idrissov U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan: Richard E. Hoagland Chronology of all U.S. envoys to Kazakhstan

SUMMARY

The ninth-largest country in the world, independent Kazakhstan is moving quickly to overcome its Soviet legacy of underdevelopment and large-scale settlement by Russian-speakers. Although affected by the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan’s economy has since recovered and is now one of the most robust in Central Asia, thanks to substantive market economic reforms, strong government stewardship, significant foreign investment, and abundant energy and mineral resources

Kazakhstan’s long-serving President Nursultan Nazarbayev – in power since 1989, and reelected in December 2005 to a new 7-year term – has used his country’s strategic location and extensive energy reserves to balance skillfully among Russia, China, Europe, and the United States, and has positioned Kazakhstan as an aspiring regional leader. Achieving sustainable economic development outside the oil, gas, and mining sectors is another near-term challenge, as is reversing the Soviet legacy of extensive environmental pollution and the drying of the Aral Sea.

Thanks to its large size and surging economy, Kazakhstan enjoys growing leverage over other central Asian states. Relations with key neighbors Russia and China are good and feature growing economic and security cooperation. The United States has praised Kazakhstan for its cooperation on U.S.-led non-proliferation, security, and counter-terrorism efforts. The U.S. has also maintained a positive relationship with Nazarbayev despite allegations leveled against his government of human rights and electoral violations, harassment of opposition and independent media, and endemic corruption.

The Jewish community of Kazakhstan is composed both of long-settled Bukharan Jews and more recent Ashkenazic immigrants from the era of Russian rule. Jewish relations with the Kazakh government are good, and there have been no recent reports of anti-Semitic acts. Kazakhstan maintains cordial relations with Israel, and President Nazarbayev is an advocate of interfaith dialogue, moderate Islam, and peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


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KAZAKHSTAN

INTRODUCTION
POLITICAL SITUATION
    Religious Situation
    Foreign Policy
    Israel
ECONOMIC SITUATION
JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE
U.S. POLICY

Kazakhstan is the second-largest Soviet successor state after Russia, and the ninth-largest country in the world. As large as Western Europe, and nearly four times the size of Texas, Kazakhstan hosts dozens of ethnic groups and religious denominations. It borders Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian and Aral Seas. 

Long dominated by Central Asian nomads and their khanates (especially Mongols and Turks), Kazakhstan was annexed piecemeal by Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, incorporated into the Soviet Union by 1920 and raised to Union Republic status in 1936. When it gained its independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan held more ethnic Slavs than ethnic Kazakhs, a legacy of Tsarist and Soviet policies of deportation and state-sponsored population resettlement. Kazakhstan’s sparsely populated northern steppes in particular were intensively settled with Russian-speaking farmers by Soviet leader Khrushchev in his “Virgin Lands” campaign during the 1950s and early 1960s. 

In Soviet-era Kazakhstan, the large Russian-speaking population enjoyed preferential treatment over ethnic Kazakhs. After 1991, ethnic tensions and official policy (such as requiring Kazakh language proficiency for government jobs) led many Russian-speakers to leave Kazakhstan, ultimately shrinking its population by a million; likewise, Kazakhs returned home from other regions of the former Soviet Union, gaining automatic citizenship. Ethnic Kazakhs now enjoy majority status in their own country, although Russian speakers still form almost a third of the population.


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POLITICAL SITUATION

The Kazakh constitution, adopted by referendum in 1995 and superseding a version passed in 1993, established a bicameral parliament, a judiciary, and an executive branch headed by a popularly elected President who serves a 7-year term. The upper house of parliament (the Senate) has 39 representatives serving six-year terms while the lower house (the Majilis) has 77 representatives serving for five years. The constitution and subsequent presidential decrees have concentrated power in the executive branch, with little power granted to or practiced by the legislature, the judiciary, or local administrations—they, who are appointed and dismissed by the President, as are the prime minister and all other members of the cabinet. However, in May 2007, parliament approved, and President Nazarbayev signed into law, a series of constitutional amendments designed to reduce the powers of the presidency, boost parliamentary powers, and raise the number of parliamentarians to 154. The amendments, which take effect in 2012, also eliminate term limits for Nazarbayev himself, whose current term ends in 2012, but reduce future presidential terms from seven to five years. 

The most recent legislative election took place for the Senate in December 2005, and was described by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) cited instances of official harassment of the opposition and pervasive pro-government media bias.

Kazakhstan’s politics since independence (and even before) have been dominated by one man: Nursultan Nazarbayev, its powerful President and former Communist Party chief. Nazarbayev was originally appointed head of the Kazakhstan Communist Party in 1989 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who considered making Nazarbayev his prime minister during the last year of the Soviet Union. Even as the USSR collapsed, Nazarbayev was elected Kazakhstan’s first President for a 5-year term in December 1991. Following flawed legislative elections in 1994 that were ultimately invalidated by the Constitutional Court, Nazarbayev dissolved parliament and initiated a national referendum in April 1995. Official results showed 95 percent of voters supported Nazarbayev’s proposal to extend his term until December 2000; another referendum held in August 1995 and boycotted by some oppositionists approved a new constitution that greatly expanded executive powers. Parliamentary elections held in December 1995 for a new bicameral legislature resulted in a sweep for pro-presidential candidates.

In October 1998, parliament approved Nazarbayev’s proposal to reschedule presidential elections from December 2000 to January 1999, and to extend the presidential term from 5 to 7 years. Nazarbayev easily won reelection with a reported 80 percent of the vote, although his chief challenger, a former prime minister, was banned from running, and the OSCE declared the election non-democratic and below international standards. 

Parliamentary elections to the lower house (Majilis) held in September 2004 produced an overwhelming win for the president’s Otan (Fatherland) party and two other pro-presidential parties. Although opposition parties were registered and competed in the elections, they won only one seat and refused to take it in protest, alleging government harassment during the campaign, leading the OSCE to describe the elections as falling short of international standards.

Kazakhstan’s most recent Presidential election was held in December 2005 in conjunction with the parliamentary election to the Senate. Official results showed that Nazarbayev won another 7-year term with 91 percent of the vote, though independent exit polls suggested this number was inflated. Several opposition candidates competed in the election, although OSCE monitors reported opposition complaints of government harassment and interference in their campaigns.

During the run-up to the 2005 presidential election, the government assumed greater powers to combat vaguely defined “extremism,” and imposed new restrictions on civil society in the name of enhancing national security. Observers suggested that these steps were taken partly in response to popular uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan in 2003-2005, in which opposition groups, NGOs, and independent media played key roles in the overthrow of unpopular authoritarian regimes. Reported threats and attacks against the opposition were more numerous in 2005, culminating in the execution-style murders of two leading opposition figures in late 2005 and early 2006 that further chilled Kazakhstan’s political environment.

The OSCE criticized Nazarbayev’s government for its conduct during the campaign and election, which it claimed limited meaningful political opposition and contributed to an atmosphere of intimidation. The OSCE determined that the 2005 presidential election did not meet democratic standards, despite some improvement over past elections. At the same time, many observers noted President Nazarbayev’s genuine popularity at home, buoyed by growing prosperity and relative stability under his rule in an region roiled by open ethnic, political, and religious conflict.

President Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, has emerged as a powerful political figure in her own right. The former head of the country’s state-run news agency and a successful businesswoman, Nazarbayeva had led her own political party and was elected to parliament, where she was at times critical of her father’s regime. However, Nazarbayeva merged her party with the President’s Otan (Homeland) party in 2006 after Nazarbayev’s reelection, and has redefined herself as a strong supporter of the current political system. Some have suggested that Nazarbayeva may be attempting to carve out a role as her father’s designated successor during what may be his last term in office. Both Nazarbayeva and Nazarbayev have called publicly for an anti-corruption drive and a government shake up, which some have interpreted as an opportunity to purge potential opponents of the Nazarbayevs from power.

In February 2007, Nazarbayev outlined his national priorities in his annual report to parliament, stressing the need for a strategy to ensure the country’s global competitiveness. Nazarbayev also called for demonopolization of the economy, described economic integration with regional groupings such as the CIS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as important, and said Kazakhstan will pursue its own “Kazakh way” of gradual political reform and will not rely on “foreign experience or abstract theories.” In a break with tradition, Nazarbayev’s address was not televised live but was recorded prior to its broadcast.

In 1994, President Nazarbayev proposed moving the capital of Kazakhstan from Almaty, its largest city and Soviet-era capital close to the Kyrgyz and Chinese borders, to Astana in north-central Kazakhstan (formerly known as Akmola and then as Tselinograd, or “Virgin Lands City.”) The move, completed by 1997-1998, may have been made in part to enhance national security by placing the capital away from the Chinese border and in the middle of the largely Russian-populated north, some of whose residents agitated for union with Russia following Kazakhstan’s independence in 1991. After the move, Nazarbayev’s government launched an ambitious, multi-billion dollar development project to turn Astana into an impressive capital, world-class city, and symbol of national pride and identity. Current plans envisage Astana ultimately doubling its population to one million and hosting a leading national university.

The Kazakh government has been accused of discouraging independent political activity, and freedom of association and assembly is limited by state regulations. Freedom of the press, although protected by the constitution, is not always respected in practice, and security services such as the KNB (Committee for National Security) have been accused of human rights abuses. The government generally allows opposition activity, including peaceful demonstrations. However, opposition groups also routinely report harassment, interference, and persecution by the authorities, including imprisonment and electoral disqualification, which is said to increase in the run-up to national elections. 

The murders of two opposition figures in 2005 and 2006 tarnished the country’s reputation. Kazakhstan is slated to chair the OSCE in 2010.

President Nazarbayev is a strong advocate for non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Since taking office, he has dismantled Kazakhstan’s nuclear arsenal, formerly the fourth largest in the world after the fall of the USSR, and has signed various treaties to reduce arms. In April 2007, the Kazakh parliament ratified an international treaty banning the use, production, or storage of biological weapons. The government used the occasion to call on the international community to help fund the rehabilitation of Kazakhstan’s extensive Soviet-era nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons-testing areas, whose residual toxins contribute to continued high rates of diseases and genetic disorders in nearby regions.


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Religious Policy

Human rights organizations have condemned official intolerance towards religious minorities in state documents, in officials' public comments, and in state-inspired hostile media coverage. National security legislation passed in 2005 gave the government wider scope to designate religious groups as extremist and ban them, and also to ban all activities by unregistered religious groups, creating another lever of state control.

Kazakhstan's controversial amendments to various laws affecting religion or belief reached the Senate in September 2008. Among numerous restrictions, if adopted in the current form the Law would for the first time explicitly ban unregistered religious activity. It would also ban anyone from sharing their beliefs without both the written backing of a registered religious association and also personal state registration as a missionary. The restrictive new draft Law amending various laws on religion was returned to the Majilis (Lower Chamber of parliament) by the Senate (Upper Chamber) with further changes and amendments in November 2007. The draft text now requires permission from both parents for children to attend any religious event, and religious groups would be allowed to only teach, propagate religious doctrines, and hold religious ceremonies and rituals in their own circle, i.e. they would be banned from spreading their faith. The law does not clarify what "their own circle" means. It is also unclear if new people join a group whether it will be regarded as missionary activity. The law must pass through the Senate and then be approved by the President before it comes into effect. 


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Foreign Policy

Since independence, Kazakhstan has pursued with a large measure of success equally good relations with Russia, China, Europe, and the United States. Past disputes with Russia over the treatment of Kazakhstan’s ethnic Russians, Russian leasing of the Baykonur Cosmodrome for rocket launches, and pipeline routes for Kazakh oil has rocked their relationship but are now resolved. In June 2006, Kazakhstan launched its first commercial satellite, KazSat 1, from Baykonur atop a Russian-built booster rocket. In January 2006, Nazarbayev and Russian President Putin met in St. Petersburg and signed an understanding dividing the northern Caspian Sea between their two states, with an eye to future joint oil field development in that area.

NASA	1975 Soyuz lift-off: Russia continues to launch space flights from Kazakhstan's Baykonur Cosmodrome.

Border disputes with neighboring Uzbekistan have been peacefully resolved, and a 2006 summit meeting between the presidents of both countries appeared to improve relations and reduce latent rivalry between Central Asia’s two biggest states. Drought and the ongoing desertification of the Aral Sea have triggered disputes over water rights among all the Central Asian nations; Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have yet to determine their boundaries in the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan’s relationship with China has been growing, boosted by Chinese interest in transporting and receiving Kazakh oil and investing in the Kazakh economy, and joint security cooperation. Kazakhstan is a member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace and is working towards accession to the World Trade Organization. 

In September 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), consisting of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, signed a memorandum on increasing cooperation in economic policy, foreign trade and investment, and made a joint statement pledging cooperation in the war against terror. Kazakhstan has been an active and willing participant in this regional organization, and has staged joint security exercises with both China and Russia.

In June 2002, 15 countries established the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Almaty. President Nazarbayev had lobbied strongly for the creation of CICA as a forum similar to the OSCE, to defuse tensions and resolve conflicts. The CICA founding document is the Almaty Act. The CICA “Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations” commits member states to cooperation in the war on terror. 

In February 2003, the Kazakh government hosted the International Conference on Peace and Harmony, which brought together Central Asian and Caspian leadership, and representatives of Jewish and Muslim groups from many nations, to promote interfaith tolerance while condemning terrorism and extremism. A follow-up conference in September 2003 brought together political and religious delegations from all regions of the world, including the United States. In September 2006, Kazakhstan hosted the Second Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which attracted religious leaders from around the world, including the two chief Rabbis of Israel. Nazarbayev has described hosting such multi-confessional meetings as his contribution to global security.

In the fall of 2006, President Nazarbayev presented his foreign policy goals for the future. His three main priorities are increasing integration with Russia, improving cooperation with China, and establishing long-term stable relations with the United States. The opening of important new oil pipelines from Kazakhstan to Russia and to China since 2000 have symbolized the Nazarbayev government’s balanced foreign policy approach. Likewise, senior American officials, including the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and other cabinet members, visited Kazakhstan in 2006, while President Nazarbayev paid a state visit to Washington, D.C. and met with President Bush at the White House in September 2006.


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Israel

Israeli President Peres visited Kazakhstan on an official visit in June, 2009, where he met with the upper political echelon, first and foremost with the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, with Prime Minister Karim Masimov, and with Senate Speaker Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev. President Peres discussed various diplomatic and security issues as well as the potential for economic-technological cooperation between the two states. In addition, Peres was invited to be the keynote speaker at an inter-religious conference with hundreds of Muslim leaders and religious figures from the Middle East and around the world.


President Nazarbayev and Jewish 
leaders visiting Israel

Kazakhstan has good relations with Israel. Diplomatic ties were established in 1992, and the countries have reciprocal embassies. Between 1989 and the present, an estimated twenty thousand Kazakh Jews have made aliyah.

Israel’s Center for International Cooperation, MASHAV, has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop Kazakh agriculture and micro-enterprise. MASAV partnered with USAID to assist in the building of a dam to help restore the Aral Sea. In addition, MASAV supplements agribusiness training centers and administers health clinics throughout Kazakhstan.

In April 2000, President Nazarbayev led a Kazakh delegation on his second official visit to Israel. Focusing on bilateral economic ties, the two countries agreed to establish a joint committee to promote cooperation, including a customs agreement; 3,000 trees were planted in the Jerusalem vicinity in honor of President Nazarbayev’s visit.

Numerous Israeli companies are involved with projects in Kazakhstan. Israel has participated in CICA, including the 2002 Summit where it signed the Almaty Act. The Israel-Kazakhstan Parliamentary Friendship League had 20 parliamentary members in 1999. Kazakhstan was among those countries interceding on behalf of 13 Jews who were put on trial in Iran in 2001.

In October 2006, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister visited Israel to take part in diplomatic and business meetings aimed at increasing cooperation between the two states. Included in the talks was discussion of building an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to Israel that would run through Turkey. The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized his Islamic state’s ability to get along with Israel and the Jews within its borders. He expressed a desire for Kazakhstan to be seen by other Islamic countries as a positive model of peaceful cooperation and coexistence with Israel.

In 2008, three new artillery systems developed by Israeli defense firms for Kazakhstan armed forces were demonstrated in early July. These systems provide real time aerial reconnaissance and target data. Because all three systems utilize advanced target location data, Kazakhstan hopes that all military tasks will be performed using less ammunition with less involvement of troops.

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ECONOMIC SITUATION

The breakup of the Soviet Union led to a severe economic contraction in Kazakhstan in the early-to-mid 1990s. In response, the government accelerated privatization and economic reform in the mid-1990s and, with support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, halted further decline and laid the foundations for later growth. 

In 2000-2001, Kazakhstan’s GDP growth rate hit double digits, slowing to a still-impressive 8.5 percent – 9.5 percent growth each year since 2002. From 2001 to 2009, estimated GDP has grown from $22.6 billion to $141 billion. 

Growth is attributed to Kazakhstan’s profitable energy sector, economic reforms, good harvests, and increased foreign investment. Inflation has remained stable at around 6-8 percent. However, inflation jumped to 18% in 2008.

In 2000, Kazakhstan became the first former Soviet republic to pay back its $400 million in loans to the IMF, seven years ahead of schedule. In 2002, the U.S. government graduated Kazakhstan to market economy status under U.S. law, and Kazakhstan became the first post-Soviet state to receive an investment-grade credit rating from a major international credit rating agency, the same year. Due to the success of the Kazakh economy, monetary aid from international organizations has significantly decreased.

Despite significant increases in GDP, Kazakhstan’s growing prosperity is not equally shared. The unemployment rate hovers around 7 percent - 8 percent, and an estimated one-fifth of the population lives below the poverty line.

Kazakhstan has major mineral reserves and massive fossil fuel reserves. It is a major exporter of raw materials and industrial goods. Much of Kazakhstan’s industry depends on resource processing. In order to avoid over-dependence on its energy and mining exports, Kazakhstan is promoting the growth of its other sectors, such as machine-building and light industry in general. 

Since its independence, Kazakhstan has been working towards reforming and privatizing its economy. In June 2003, Kazakhstan passed legislation allowing private ownership of land.

Since independence from Soviet rule, Kazakhstan has received approximately $13 billion in foreign investment in its oil and natural gas industries, primarily from foreign oil companies. The U.S. accounts for close to one-third of the foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan (27 percent of total FDI in 2006)). The oil industry currently accounts for approximately 30 percent of Kazakhstan's government budget, and oil accounts for half of Kazakhstan's exports. Kazakhstan’s proven petroleum reserves are estimated at 5.4 billion barrels of oil, and its potential reserves at 30-50 billion barrels. According to Kazakh officials, the offshore Kashagan field alone contains 7 to 9 billion barrels of available oil. Kazakhstan also has proven reserves of 65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Economic relations between Russia and Kazakhstan are close. Kazakhstan depends on the use of Russian pipelines to export much of its oil, and Russia is Kazakhstan’s largest export partner. In March 2001, Kazakhstan opened a pipeline that leads from the Tenghiz oil field through Russian territory to the Black Sea port of Novorossisk. The Tenghiz oil field is the sixth-largest in the world, with six to nine billion barrels worth of oil, and produces 530,000 barrels of oil per day, with plans to produce one million barrels of oil per day by 2012. This is the first pipeline to connect Caspian oil reserves to international markets, and is expected to generate substantial revenue for Kazakhstan. The increase of oil-related foreign funds has put upward pressure on the Kazakh currency, but inflation has been kept steady. Kazakhstan is set to join the world’s top ten oil producers in the next decade.

In an effort to expand and diversify its oil export capacity, Kazakhstan is working with China to extend a major pipeline from the Tenghiz field into China. In return, China has sold a majority of its oil fields in Kazakhstan back to the state. 

As one of the Caspian Sea’s five littoral states (along with Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan), Kazakhstan has been involved in longstanding disputes over control of potential Caspian Sea oil reserves. In May 2002, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement dividing several northern Caspian oil fields on an equal basis. 

In 2005, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan agreed to begin definitive boundary demarcation; by 2006 demarcation of the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border was already complete. Delimitation of a seabed boundary with Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains unresolved, and other issues remain outstanding with other littoral states, including Russia and Azerbaijan.

Despite economic progress, environmental pollution in Kazakhstan is widespread and represents a serious threat to public health and future development. The Kazakh government faces the prospect of a massive environmental cleanup to deal with Soviet-era pollution, including nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons test sites, failed agricultural projects, and weak industrial pollution controls. 

Kazakhstan’s most pressing ecological issue is the plight of the Aral Sea. Once a principal source of irrigation and drinking water for the region, this inland sea has shrunk dramatically since the 1960s, creating serious environmental, health, and economic hazards. Beginning in the 1930s, the Soviets diverted the tributary rivers of the Aral Sea in order to irrigate cotton; while cotton production in the region increased dramatically, so did poverty, disease, and lack of water, causing many rural Kazakhs to look for work in the country’s cities. By 2000, the Aral Sea was a quarter of its original size, divided into separate North and South portions, and still shrinking.

In 2003, the World Bank and the Kazakh government began working together on the Kokaral Dam to reverse evaporation and improve water quality in the Sea’s northern portion (the southern portion lies largely in Uzbekistan). Completed in 2005, the dam proved highly successful, raising water levels in the North Aral Sea, enabling the local fishing industry to resume, and helping to reverse the region’s population loss. Reports in 2007 suggested that the Aral Sea, or at least its northern half, is beginning to recover, but noted that additional international funding is needed.

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JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE

Today, Kazakhstan is home to between 15,000 and 30,000 Jews, most of whom are descendants of 19th and 20th century Ashkenazi immigrants from Europe and European Russia. Only an estimated two thousand are Bukharan and Tat Jews, who have resided in Kazakhstan for up to two thousand years. Many Kazakh Jews are descendants of Russian army conscripts sent to Kazakhstan during the Russian Empire. The country’s Jewish population increased during the Soviet period, in part due to the Soviet practice of exiling politically and economically “suspect” elements, especially during Stalin’s rule. An estimated 8,500 Jews escaped to Kazakhstan from Eastern Europe during World War II to escape the German occupation and the Holocaust. Almaty has the greatest Jewish population, with 11,000 people. Smaller communities exist in other big cities, including Karaganda, Chimkent, Astana, Semipalatinsk and Kokchetav.

The Kazakh Jewish community enjoys a stable environment and well-organized religious and cultural life. Established in 1992, The Mitzvah Association coordinates the social services and cultural and religious work of 15 Jewish cultural associations, 12 welfare organizations, and 12 Jewish community centers. The welfare organizations, funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC/ “Joint”) help 10,000 Jews in more than 90 cities and towns through soup kitchens, home care for the elderly, medical services, and summer camps.

The Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan was created in December 1999 to help unify the Kazakh Jewish community, with billionaire businessman and philanthropist Alexander Mashkevich named as its president. In March 2002, Mashkevich assumed the presidency of the new Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, which is concerned with the state of Jewish communities across the former USSR. Mashkevich, who holds both Kazakh and Israeli citizenship, plays an influential role in the Kazakh Jewish community. He has contributed substantial funds to the Jewish community and has been the primary donor for the construction of new synagogues in Kazakhstan.

Mashkevich has also been active in organizing interfaith dialogues, both in Kazakhstan and internationally. In 2005, he organized a meeting with all the religious leaders of the country that included President Nazarbayev, who hosted this interconfessional dialogue between Jews and Muslims. Mashkevich has made various visits to Islamic states to meet with government officials, and reportedly is planning a visit to Iran. His close ties to President Nazarbayev have helped give the Jewish community prestige and acceptance in Kazakh society, but have also raised concerns about the community’s future in a post-Nazarbayev Kazakhstan. In March 2007, Mashkevich received the United Jewish Appeal Global Leadership Award from U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, in the presence of the Kazakh Ambassador to the United States, during a ceremony in New York City. In his remarks, Mashkevich stressed the role of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in promoting inter-religious and inter-ethnic dialogue in Kazakhstan, and promoted such efforts as a necessary precondition for effective peacemaking in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The Association of Jewish Communities of Kazakhstan, a Chabad Lubavitch organization, plays an active role in Kazakhstan’s Jewish community. Chabad Lubavitch operates a Jewish center called Beis Menachem (“the House of Menachem”) and conducts services at synagogues in Almaty, Astana, and Chimkent. The Chabad offers Jewish day school, food distribution services, elderly care, and summer camp for Jewish children. 

The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) maintains an office in Almaty and actively participates in Jewish life throughout Kazakhstan, promoting Jewish identity while working with other Jewish organizations. JAFI sponsors Jewish youth centers throughout Kazakhstan, the largest of which is in Almaty. These centers serve as a hangout for Jewish teens as well as a forum for teaching Jewish culture. In July 2001, 120 teenagers from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan attended a ten-day summer seminar about Israel and Judaism.

Jewish education and cultural activities have expanded steadily since independence. Fourteen Jewish supplementary schools operate in Kazakhstan with more than seven hundred students in attendance. Chabad’s Ohr Avner Gershuni Jewish Day School enrolls nearly 100 children. In 2000, the Jews of Uralsk established a Jewish Culture Society and have since received offers of material and financial aid from the local government. 

Jewish leaders in Kazakhstan characterize their relationship with the government as positive. President Nazarbayev personally presented historical records on the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s father – who was exiled to Kazakhstan during the Soviet period and is buried in Almaty – to Lubavitch leaders in a December 1999 visit to New York. 

Many government officials, as well as the U.S. Ambassador, attended the founding session of the All-Kazakhstan Jewish Congress in December 1999. At a Washington, D.C., ceremony in October 2003, Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee opened part of its archives to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The documents detail the prosecution of Nazi collaborators in Kazakhstan after World War II. 

In September 2006, the largest synagogue in Central Asia was dedicated in Almaty. Funded by Mashkevich and named after his mother, Beit Rachel is large enough to accommodate all five hundred of Astana’s Jews. Also in 2006, a new synagogue and community center opened in Ust-Kamenogorsk, a new Torah scroll was completed for the first time in the history of Kazakhstan’s Jewish community, both chief rabbis of Israel visited Kazakhstan, and the country’s first-ever Association for Hebrew Speakers was formed.

Though Kazakhstan has long embraced its Jewish community, anti-Semitic sentiment also exists locally. Incidents of anti-Semitic violence are rare, and none have been reported recently. In the wake of the widely released and successful 2006 comedy film “Borat,” which portrays Kazakhstan as a hot-bed of anti-Semitism, Kazakh officials are expanding outreach efforts to explain to the world that Kazakhs are in fact very tolerant of Jews, and that there is little anti-Semitism in Kazakhstan. In 2006, the Kazakh government issued a stamp honoring the historic Almaty Synagogue and a postcard of the new Astana Synagogue.

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U.S. POLICY

Defense Department photo:  Helene C. Stikkel

November 2001: U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (right) escorting Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov into the Pentagon

The United States was the first country to recognize Kazakhstan as an independent country when it declared its independence in December 1991, and opened its embassy in Almaty in January 1992. Between 1992 and 2006, the U.S. provided $1.2 billion in foreign assistance to Kazakhstan. In FY2006 alone, overall U.S. assistance to Kazakhstan was estimated at $50.4 million, with the vast majority budgeted for market reform programs and security and law enforcement programs. 

Since 1993, USAID has administered funds designated to enhance communications and political reform, education, health care, micro-enterprise, and community development, and market reforms. In 2006, Kazakhstan became the first state to share in the funding of a USAID project, contributing $15 million of the $40 million total to an economic project aimed at achieving Kazakhstan’s development goals. 

Participating for the first time in international peacekeeping efforts, in August 2003 Kazakhstan contributed 27 soldiers and other personnel to the U.S.-led peacekeeping coalition force in Iraq. 

Early U.S.-Kazakh relations were marked by significant cooperation in security and non-proliferation. With U.S. assistance and encouragement, Kazakhstan renounced its Soviet-legacy nuclear weapons in 1993 and removed them in 1995, sending more than a half-ton of weapons-grade uranium to the United States. Kazakhstan has signed all major international arms control treaties. The United States has spent $240 million to help Kazakhstan in eliminating weapons of mass destruction and their infrastructure. In addition, stockpiles have also been reduced through such programs as Cooperative Threat Reduction, and Nazarbayev has been commended for his success. U.S. funding also supports the strengthening of border security. 

With the advent of the international anti-terrorism coalition, the United States has pledged to expand democracy initiatives while enhancing its commitments to security and law enforcement programming. Approximately 120 Peace Corps Volunteers currently are working throughout Kazakhstan providing basic education and promoting NGO development. In FY2006, an estimated $26.4 million of total U.S. assistance was budgeted for security and counterterrorism.

During the 2001 conflict in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan’s support for the U.S.-led mobilization included emergency landing and fly-over rights. The two countries have engaged in joint military exercises and training for several years. In 2005, U.S. Central Command conducted 45 bilateral military cooperation events with Kazakhstan, double the amount of events in 2001.

At a White House summit in December 2001, Presidents Nazarbayev and Bush issued a joint statement supporting Kazakh economic development and democratic reform, Kazakhstan’s entry into the World Trade Organization, and its “graduation” from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. As part of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act, the Jackson-Vanik amendment imposed trade restrictions on the Soviet Union in response to its inadequate human rights policy, particularly restricting emigration of religious minorities, and anti-Semitism. The amendment stated that non-market economies that continue to impose emigration restrictions on their citizens would not be granted permanent normal trade relations or most favored nation status with the United States. In March 2002, the U.S. granted Kazakhstan market-economy status, though as of publication, Kazakhstan has not graduated from Jackson-Vanik.

Concerns about government corruption have generated tension between the two countries. An ongoing U.S. federal grand jury probe has raised allegations that American oil companies, competing for Kazakh oil and gas production rights, may have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to senior Kazakh government officials, including President Nazarbayev. In a separate corruption scandal involving the Kazakh government, American businessman James Giffen is being prosecuted in the United States for foreign bribery involving Kazakh oil. 

It is suspected that, through Giffen, President Nazarbayev and the head of the oil ministry may have received millions of dollars in bribes. Although of serious concern to Kazakh authorities, who have prosecuted local journalists attempting to cover this ongoing case, it does not seem to have dampened U.S.-Kazakh relations.

In September 2006, President Nazarbayev paid a state visit to the United States and met with President Bush. Despite criticism over Kazakhstan’s imperfect electoral record, state restrictions on news media, its decision to shut down two American democracy organizations, and alleged human rights violations, Bush praised Kazakhstan as a free nation. He touted Kazakhstan’s role as an important U.S. ally that helps to promote regional stability and security. Topics of discussion during Nazarbayev’s visit focused on energy diversification and democratization. While in Washington, Nazarbayev also unveiled the Monument of the Independence of Kazakhstan at the Kazakh embassy. Also during his visit, Nazarbayev met with Jewish community leaders and spoke of his desires to promote inter-ethnic peace. 

In February 2007, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Southern and Central Asia Richard Boucher met with President Nazarbayev and later described the United States and Kazakhstan as “strategic partners.” Boucher welcomed of political reforms underway in Kazakhstan, said the United States supports the diversification of the Kazakh economy, and reiterated the U.S. interest in bilateral counternarcotics and antiterrorism initiatives. 

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Marines training Kazakh soldiers at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (June 1998)

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