Based on the information provided by one of our insiders, the support of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga was one of the main factors that played in favor of Askar Mamin when he was chosen as Bakytzhan Sagintayev’s successor as Prime Minister.

The exact reasons why Dariga Nazarbayeva who, by the way, has recently been elected as a member of the Bureau of the Nur Otan Political Council, had suddenly decided to support his candidacy are unknown to kz.expert.

However, if we are to believe the insider, Askar Mamin who was regarded as the henchman of Adilbek Dzhaksybekov with whom he had moved from the business sphere to the state service and as whose first deputy he had served at the Astana Governor’s Office decided to change the protector and chose Dariga Nazarbayeva as his new backing.

If it is so, it is the President’s eldest daughter that has become the main beneficiary of Adilbek Dzhaksybekov’s fall as well as the unofficial “heiress” of his major economic asset – Tsesnabank JSC.

We will recall that, earlier, Aset Isekeshev, the former Governor of Astana who is also regarded as Dariga Nazarbayeva’s henchman was appointed the Head of the Presidential Administration instead of Dzhaksybakov Sr. who had been forced to hastily leave the state service.

According to a different insider, Nursultan Nazarbayev’s inner circle is not thrilled about the strengthening of Dariga’s position. However, no one is capable of retaliating against it.

The situation is particularly worrying for the group of Dinara and Timur Kulibayevs since they know full well that, if Dariga Nazarbayeva becomes the leader of the state after or instead of her father, they will be the first victims of the redistribution of the influence spheres in politics, state apparatus and economy. Nothing personal, just business as they say.

The feasibility of this development can indirectly be confirmed not only by the stirring up of the gossip that it is the eldest daughter that is to become the President’s successor but also by the leakage of the compromising materials against her. Including via the formally independent channels – for example, the “investigations” on the Swiss accounts and the publication depicting Aysultan Nazarbayev as a drug user.

By the Kazakh standards, if Askar Mamin has really changed the benefactor moving from Adilbek Dzhaksybekov’s protective blanket to that of Dariga Nazarbayeva, then, considering the events of the past year, his decision is a right one.

As French politician and diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord said, “Betrayal is a matter of time. Betraying at the right time is foreseeing”.