Kazakh president strips predecessor's daughter of key role in aftermath of exposure of assets in the UK
The multi-millionaire daughter of Kazakhstan’s ex-president has been stripped of powers that would have put her first in line for the leadership of the oil-rich Central Asian nation.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the current president, gave no reason for Dariga Nazarbayeva’s surprise dismissal as senate speaker, but the decision comes shortly after a high-profile London court battle that exposed details of her vast personal fortune.
Ms Nazarbayeva was made senate speaker last year when her father Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down after almost 30 years as president, handing over to his protege Mr Tokayev.
The speaker automatically takes power if the president resigns or is incapacitated, leading to speculation that 56-year-old Ms Nazarbayeva was positioning to succeed her father.
Mr Nazarbayev still holds outsize influence in the ex-Soviet state and took the title “Leader of the Nation” after leaving the presidency, while Kazakhstan’s capital city Astana was renamed Nur-Sultan in his honour last year.
Family members amassed huge fortunes over Mr Nazarbayev’s decades in power, but journalists in Kazakhstan are forbidden by law from investigating this wealth.
Details however came to light in a High Court battle in London in March, as Ms Nazarbayeva and her son sought to stop ‘McMafia’ laws being used to seize their £80-million property portfolio in the capital.
The UK National Crime Agency had targeted three addresses it suspected were bought with the proceeds of crimes by Ms Nazarbayeva’s late ex-husband. They included a 10-bedroom mansion in an area of Hampstead, north London, known as Billionaires’ Row.
The court overturned the Unexplained Wealth Orders - also known as ‘McMafia’ orders after the popular BBC drama - but the ruling brought attention to Ms Nazarbayeva’s business empire, which spans the sugar, car, banking and media industries.
Forbes magazine last estimated her wealth in 2013 at $595 million, and she was named in the Panama Papers as the owner of an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.
Ms Nazarbayeva is also an amateur opera singer who has performed on Kazakh television and at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
Political decision-making in Kazakhstan is opaque and it is not clear whether Mr Nazarbayev played a role in his daughter’s dismissal at the weekend, or whether she will be appointed to another position. President Tokayev thanked Ms Nazarbayeva for her “active and fruitful” service in a tweet.
Mr Tokayev’s deputy chief of staff Maulen Ashimbayev became senate speaker in a reshuffle on Monday.
