Several weeks ago, Compromat.ws published a very interesting article under the high-sounding title Bulat Utemuratov’s Private State and Tennis Harem  (text available in Russian). It tells the story of the Kazakh billionaire and one of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s closest allies. Note that it would be wrong calling this publication “a tabloid press” for it is an unabashed slam. So, the question arises – who has ordered it and why?

As we suspect, the answer to this question is unknown even to those Compromat.ws’ employees who published the material. They were likely to have been given a certain sum of money and presented with the text of the slam that, after the necessary editorial revision, was revealed to the general public. However, we are certain that there is somebody’s interest behind this. Let us muse as to whose.

The range of the potential ordering customers may turn out to be rather wide. It may include:

• individual journalists and media-structures that make more money on the non-publishing than on the publishing of compromising materials,
• personal enemies and ill-wishers of Utemuratov and of his family members,
• his political opponents in Akorda as well as those who would want, one way or another, to “make some money” on the person whose fortune is estimated to constitute US $3.4 bln.

However, the interest to Bulat Utemuratov may not be of the economic but of the political nature. In this case, the number of the ordering customers can be reduced to several people.

The first on the list is Nursultan Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga.

The thing is that, as the Head of the Senate, she is now not only the second-top state official in the country (after President) but the key player in Nazarbayev’s immediate circle. Moreover, according to our insiders, she has already begun pressurizing Timue Kulibayev and Bulat Utemuratov in order to hustle them away from power and the decision-making process and to redivide their assets (or rather the main country’s family’s assets registered in their name) to her benefit.

Particularly, according to the information we have received, they are preparing (perhaps have already prepared) a draft of a governing document on launching a special agency directly subordinated to the second President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in other words, to Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev. This agency is to be responsible for “maintaining” foreign investors. Among other things, it will have the right to give away the permits for oil, gas and other resources’ extraction.

If this happens, the unofficial supervisor of the oil-and-gas sector Timur Kulibayev and his henchman, the “unsinkable” Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev will be hustled away from this rather profitable business. 

Another ordering customer may be found among the groups in the Russian ruling elite aiming for the escalation of the confrontation between Russia and Vladimir Putin and the US and Donald Trump.

To confirm this, let us quote the passages from the article that are, we emphasize, the crucial ones in the text.

“US President Donald Trump requested the intelligence to join the investigation of the 2016 surveillance of his office. It is quite possible that it will not be the end of things. One of the half-forgotten scandals of that campaign is the kompromat against Trump (allegedly in possession of the Russian intelligence service) who, during his 2013 visit to Russia, lived in Ritz-Carlton in the same presidential suit as was reserved for Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Allegedly, the suit was packed with surveillance cameras that recorded Trump’s inappropriate behavior (he requested two prostitutes be sent to his room).

Had this kompromat been in possession of the FSC or the Democrats, it would have probably been used already. And it really did exist, but not in their hands – this is that very case when there is no smoke without fire. There is word that they really did record the video in that room. Albeit it was not the Russians who were filming the future President of the US but the trusted people of the hotel’s owner - a state official and businessman from Kazakhstan called Bulat Utemuratov - upon the personal order of the latter”.

“Let us go back to Donald Trump and Ritz-Carlton. Utemuratov bought the Ritz Carlton hotel in Moscow for $350 mln. The cameras in the rooms were installed upon his personal order – “just in case”, says a source closely associated with the billionaire. And not just in Moscow, but also in Vienna and in Astana that has recently been renamed Nur-Sultan.

It is thanks to the kompromat against his competitors and ill-wishers that Utemuratov has managed to preserve his influence in Kazakhstan even after his retirement from power. Therefore, the rumors of the “home video” with Donald Trump performing the leading part are not without reason. It would be too hard to conceal such a “hot” piece of information.

It’s just that when it came to sharing these video-recordings, Utemuratov chose not to share it with anyone including the Russian secret service. While Trump remained one of the richest people in the US, Utemuratov had kept the file in order to have an additional trump card in a possible negotiation. Up to the very day of the elections, the Kazakh billionaire had kept the kompromat against his US colleague while having the sluggish negotiations with the Democrats on selling the file. And when Trump won the elections, the talks were suspended – Utemuratov has personally hidden the file until better days not entrusting his aides with it.

It is unlikely that the architects of Russia’s foreign policy as well as the point men from the Russian secret service are too pleased about the whole thing. But the oligarch himself considers this video his insurance against the “hot” events that may develop around him in Russia and in the world.

Bulat Utemuratov has always been known for his ability to lucratively sell his influence and powers, starting from the times when he was a director of a grocery store. And, by the looks of it, such “hot” events may be just around the corner. Bulat Utemuratov went directly against Russia’s interests despite the fact that, in recent years, he has been acquiring more and more business-interests in this country. It is very curious that the name of the Kazakh businessman is not mentioned in Mueller’s report. He seems to fit right in there”.

If this information will be heard and, most importantly, becomes the reason to continue (revive) making certain moves by the pertinent structures in the US, Russia, Kazakhstan of any other country that is interested in aggravating the political tension with the participation of the three states, Bulat Utemuratov will invariably find himself in the firing line.

Note that the attack against him may be both public and legal, carried out through the official channels, and also hidden and secret. For instance, his accounts and other assets including the securities and real estate belonging to him and his affiliated parties may be frozen, he may be denied entrance visas, criminal investigations may be opened against him, compromising materials published.  

This means that Bulat Utemuratov who has not been of interest to the Kazakh press and civil society since his retirement from the state service and who, today, it thought to be a generous philanthropist rather than a big entrepreneur and a billionaire has now entered a hazard-prone area.

For our part, we can confirm that the questions addressed to him will be numerous since a number of his rather dubious business-operations have gone unnoticed in the country only because they took place amid much more significant events.

Also, his active role in BTA Bank’s story and his representation of Akorda’s and Nursultan Nazarbayev’s personal interests in the international business-projects have so far remain in the shadows.

Thus, apart from some spicy personal details and the word that Bulat Utemuratov hires hackers to “clean out” the information about him on the internet as well as controls the Kazakh microcredit market, he has plenty to hide. And this, in our opinion, is bound to “float” to the public surface. The only question is when and in which volumes.