The posts about the health of former NSC Chief Karim Masimov (who has been held at the NSC pretrial detention centre since January 6, 2022) getting worse have been circling the social media for a couple of days now. Unfortunately, our sources have not been able to either confirm or deny this information at this point.
The thing is that Masimov himself, his family and his lawyer have fe-facto been isolated from the press and the public.
Apart from that, few people are following the case of Masimov and his henchmen in Kazakhstan. At least, his former colleagues, friends and allies have not taken any steps to publish information related to his case. Therefore, there have been no information leaks either.
We have been able to find only one online resource that is openly defending the man who, in the past, had occupied the post of the head of the government not once but twice. However, this resource looks so dubious that it is unlikely to catch the interest of the general public. In our opinion, the only valuable information published on this website consists of the list of the foreign politicians and pubic activists who have spoken in Masimov’s defence.
Meanwhile, not long ago, Masimov was one of the three Kazakhstan’s most influential people. He was a part of the First President’s entourage and had the power to decide the fates of many people in the country. But now he is all alone and cannot count even on support of human rights activists and NGOs that seem to have chosen not to get involved.
The fact that Masimov has been abandoned by everyone including his former patron and those he had patroned himself is quite remarkable given the Kazakh realia. For, in Kazakhstan, every very important person forms their own clan. With that, in exchange for protection, the members of this clan provide its leader not only with their services but with their support in difficult circumstances.
We are not to judge the people refusing to defend the former NSC Chief since their reasons for doing so may vary – from being held at the pretrial detention centre to desiring getting even with the person whom they have served yet hated.
We should, however, ask the question why Karim Masimov has been betrayed by his benefactor, in other words, Nursultan Nazarbayev. For, it is the betrayal on the part of the First President that has allowed Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to not only fire Masimov but accuse him of committing high treason (this we do not believe which we have said many times in our previous publications).
Here is the list of these publications in case you’ve missed them.
“On Masimov’s People and Kenes Rakishev” (text available in Russia)
“Masimov’s Two-Million Dollar Mystery”.
And now, when Kayrat Satybaldy is giving back a large share of Kazakhtelecom to the national company for free, we are growing even more certain in the belief that the material factor has played the crucial role in Karim Masimov’s fate.
It looks like the several billion US dollars hidden in Hong Kong and Singapore (the money that, according to our sources, were managed by the people of the former NSC Chief) have not been returned to Nursultan Nazarbayev or, rather, to his designated persons. And, to solve this problem, the Elbasy let Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrest Karim Masimov (luckily, for a cause – the January protests). On the other hand, it could Nazarbayev himself that had initiated the arrest.
In view of this, we think it’s worth investigating which one of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s closest allies has left the Library and vanished into thin air. It is quite possible that this person is already in Hong Kong (for instance) where s/he is chairing a company/holder of large assets. Or this person is to appear there soon and become a substantial investor.
We repeat, if this happens, Karim Masimov’s chances to get out of jail will be reduced drastically. To confirm this, we recommend recalling the sad fate of yet another very influential member of the Nazarbayev clan, that of Rakhat Aliyev.
