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Security

Tokayev puts a budget specialist into the Defence Ministry after a week of removals

Tatyana Savelyeva, a vice-minister of finance from 2016 to 2023 and chair of the Mazhilis budget committee until July, was named Deputy Minister of Defence by a presidential order on Wednesday, minutes after the Kurultai ended her mandate without a dissenting vote, by Zakon’s reports of 10:22 and 11:53. Asker Beisenov was released from the post by another order the same morning.

By CAW Staff8 October 2026
An empty marble ministry corridor with rows of closed dark doors and one door ajar spilling warm amber light across the floor.

Savelyeva’s request to end her mandate was supported unanimously at the Kurultai’s plenary sitting on Wednesday, Zakon reported at 10:22, and the appointment followed at 11:53 from Akorda’s Telegram channel: by an order of the head of state, Savelyeva Tatyana Mikhailovna is appointed Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan. She was born in 1976 in Akmola region, worked in the finance ministry’s budget departments from 2002, served as vice-minister of finance from April 2016 to March 2023, sat in the Mazhilis on the AMANAT list from March 2023, chaired its finance and budget committee from February 2024 until her Mazhilis mandate ended on 1 July, and entered the Kurultai on the Adilet list, by the biography Zakon printed. The ministry that lost three officials on Saturday and a former commander on Tuesday gets a budget hand on Wednesday.

Beisenov’s release came one minute earlier on the same channel, by Zakon’s stamp of 11:52, with no reason printed. On Saturday Tokayev relieved three Defence Ministry heads, navy commander Kanat Niyazbekov and deputy minister Almaz Dzhumakeev among them, by Zakon at 14:44 on 3 October, and on Tuesday Niyazbekov was detained, Zakon reported at 15:09 on 6 October, with Tengrinews tying the arrest to the deaths of 14 servicemen in the Caspian landing exercise of 24 September. The five officers arrested earlier in that case are accused of negligence and of violating the rules of navigation with grave consequences under article 453 part 2 and article 465 of the Criminal Code, as CAW reported on Tuesday, and neither agency prints the article in Niyazbekov’s own case.

The ministry that lost three officials on Saturday and a former commander on Tuesday gets a budget hand on Wednesday.

Decree 1507 of September sends the ministry’s reform plan to the Security Council in the second half of October, as CAW reported on Wednesday, and the appointment puts a career budget official into the ministry a fortnight before that sitting. Who takes her Kurultai seat, and whether Savelyeva takes Beisenov’s portfolio or a new one, is on neither Zakon page.

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