Kazakhstan
The Caspian search ends at 14 dead and 3 rescued as five officers are detained, the Navy’s chief of staff among them
The defence ministry found the last two of the missing at about 09:15 on Friday, Sergeant Mansur Gumarov and Seaman Miras Turdybekuly, and declared the search over: of the 17 servicemen swept into the sea on Thursday during the Khazar Korgany-2026 exercise, 14 are dead and 3 were rescued. By early afternoon the interior ministry said five officials of the defence ministry were in the temporary detention facility of the Aktau police as suspects, the chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Naval Forces, two commanders of military units, the commander of a marine infantry company and the commander of the patrol boat Qaisar, from which the men were disembarking 43 km from Aktau in adverse weather.
Kazakhstan and China sign 10 agreements in Almaty on a day of mourning: Tokayev’s $50 billion of trade, a target of $100 billion, and a morning that had promised 40 documents
The Kazakhstan-China Investment Forum opened in Almaty on Friday with a minute of silence for the servicemen lost in the Caspian and had 10 agreements on its list by mid-afternoon, one of them carrying a number: wind stations of 450 MW in Akmola region with SUNGROW. President Tokayev put last year’s trade at a record of almost $50 billion, the target at $100 billion, China’s investment in Kazakhstan at more than $29 billion and the enterprises with Chinese capital at more than 9,000, and proposed to hold the meeting every September as the Almaty Investment Dialogue. In the morning the organiser, Kazakh Invest, had expected more than 40 commercial documents worth several billion dollars.
A dawn test at the new Syrdarya plant knocks 1,600 MW off Uzbekistan’s grid, splits Kazakhstan’s north-south transit and sheds 962 MW in the south for 41 minutes
At 05:05 on Friday, during commissioning tests at the new 1,573 MW thermal plant in Bayavut district of Syrdarya region, built by the consortium of France’s EDF, Qatar’s Nebras Power and Japan’s Sojitz and Kyuden, 1,600 MW of capacity dropped out of Uzbekistan’s grid and households and farm water pumps in several regions lost power, the energy ministry said through its Telegram channel; reserves at other plants and the storage systems were brought in, every consumer was back by 07:27, and the ministry apologised, Spot reported at 07:54. Kazakhstan’s grid operator KEGOC put the loss at 1,516 MW at 05:02, said the surge of power flow split its north-south transit, restricted 962 MW of consumption, and restored the southern zone’s parallel operation with the Central Asian systems at 05:43, Forbes.kz reported.
Kazakhstan mourns 12 servicemen from the Caspian exercise, with 2 still sought and the count of the swept-away revised from 19 to 17
Friday is a national day of mourning in Kazakhstan, by President Tokayev’s order, for the servicemen lost in the Caspian on Thursday: the defence ministry’s count on Friday morning is 17 swept into the sea during the Khazar Korgany-2026 exercise, 12 dead, 3 rescued and 2 still being searched for, against the 19 and 9 of its first statement. Round the clock the search runs with 252 personnel, 37 military divers, 14 ships and boats, more than 20 aircraft including 4 helicopters and 34 units of ground equipment, the ministry said, and the Prosecutor General’s office is investigating under article 453 part 2 of the Criminal Code, a negligent attitude to service with grave consequences, and article 465, violation of the rules of navigation.
Three governments spend 3 days in Almaty on the Kambar-Ata-1 agreement: the World Bank watches and the only sum on the table is Kazakhstan’s plan to borrow $500 million for its third of the dam
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan held the third round of talks on the intergovernmental agreement on Kambar-Ata-1 in Almaty from 21 to 23 September, the Kyrgyz energy ministry said on Thursday through Economist.kg: deputy energy minister Salaat Sadyrakunov for Bishkek, first vice-minister of water resources and irrigation Nurlan Aldamzharov for Astana, first deputy energy minister Umid Mamadaminov for Tashkent, with the World Bank’s representatives in the room as observers. That document is to define the joint construction and management of the plant, the approach to financing it and the coordination between the 3 states, and the sum in the room is Kazakhstan’s plan, first reported by Economist.kg in March, to borrow about $500 million from the bank’s structures for the construction.
Tokayev will dissolve every maslikhat in Kazakhstan, and the councils that Amanat filled in 2023 go back to the polls on a date the election commission has yet to name
President Tokayev told the second day of the People’s Council’s first session on Thursday that the closing stage of the reforms will be elections to the maslikhats at every level: he will consult the prime minister and the Kurultai’s chairman shortly on ending the councils’ powers early, sign a decree, and leave the date to the Central Election Commission, Zakon.kz reported at 12:31. His reason is the party map. The great majority of maslikhat deputies were elected from Amanat, he said, and that party no longer acts on its own, having joined Adilet, so the question of the legitimacy of the greater part of the maslikhats’ deputy corps would arise.
Bad weather sweeps 19 Kazakh servicemen into the Caspian during the Khazar Korgany-2026 naval exercise: 9 dead, 3 rescued, 7 missing
Nineteen servicemen of Kazakhstan’s naval forces were swept into the Caspian Sea off Mangystau on Thursday when the weather turned and the wind rose during the Khazar Korgany-2026 exercise, the defence ministry said; 9 died, 3 were rescued, one of them in hospital, and the search for the other 7 was still running when the government’s statement went out at 15:12 Astana time. Prime minister Olzhas Bektenov put a government commission under deputy prime minister Kanat Bozumbaev and ordered him to the site; the Prosecutor General’s office opened a criminal case.
One abstention, 15 chairs and a date in the law: 3 parliaments count in one week
Astana’s new council produced a single dissenter and no dissent. Ulaanbaatar’s committees voted a budget at half a room. Bishkek’s deputies confirmed, 86 to none, an election day the calendar had fixed for them. The old Commonwealth between the empires knew all 3 arithmetics. The last one ended it.
Kazakhstan’s Kurultai ratifies a framework with the AIIB for about $6 billion of concessional money over 5 years, at 1 to 1.5% a year, for 3 roads and a railway
The Kurultai adopted in 2 readings on Wednesday the law ratifying Kazakhstan’s framework partnership agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, signed in February during the visit of the bank’s president Zou Jiayi, Kazinform and Zakon.kz reported. Deputy prime minister and national economy minister Serik Zhumangarin told the deputies the agreement lets the government draw “long money” on concessional terms of about $6 billion in the first 5 years after ratification, at 1 to 1.5% a year, for 17 projects worth $5.3 billion in transport, energy, health and green finance: the Zhezkazgan-Karaganda, Aktobe-Karabutak-Ulgaisyn and Atyrau-Dossor roads and the Moyynty-Kyzylzhar railway among them.
The ADB and the EBRD publish their autumn forecasts a day apart: Central Asia and Mongolia grow 5.8% on one count while the Caucasus slips on the other
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development put Central Asia and Mongolia at 5.8% growth in 2026 and 5.3% in 2027 in its Regional Economic Prospects published on Thursday: Kyrgyzstan 8.7% this year, Tajikistan 7.9%, Uzbekistan 7.5%, Mongolia and Turkmenistan 6.3%, Kazakhstan 4.7%. The Asian Development Bank’s September Outlook, published on Wednesday, raised Uzbekistan to 7.0% from 6.7% after an 8.5% first half and Georgia to 6.3% from 5.5%, cut Tajikistan to 7.0% from 7.3% and Azerbaijan to 1.6% from 2.0%, and left Kazakhstan at 4.8%, Kyrgyzstan at 8.9%, Turkmenistan at 6.3%, Armenia at 5.0% and Mongolia at 5.7%. Its subregion, the Caucasus and Central and West Asia, slips to 3.7% for 2026 and 4.1% for 2027, a tenth of a point down on July on both years.
Diesel in Dushanbe falls 6% as Russian deliveries triple, while petrol rises 7.4% and liquefied gas 18% in 3 weeks
AI-92 petrol in Dushanbe costs about 14.50 somoni a litre against 13.50 at the end of August, liquefied gas 6.70 against 5.70 and diesel 15.50 against 16.50, Asia-Plus reported on Wednesday: petrol up about 7.4% in under a month, gas up about 18%, diesel down about 6%. The diesel fall follows Russia’s August deliveries of more than 56,000 tonnes against about 16,000 in July, a 3.5-fold rise; the reasons the authorities have given for the petrol rise are the world market, export restrictions in producing countries and transport costs.
Kazakhstan’s People’s Council elects Yerlan Koshanov its chairman by 120 votes to 1, and the week’s seating of the second republic is complete
The Qazaqstan Halyq Kenesi elected Yerlan Koshanov, the last chairman of the abolished Mazhilis, as its chairman at its first session in Astana on Wednesday: 121 ballots came out of the urn, none of them spoiled, 120 for him and 1 abstention, Kazinform reported at 15:02. President Tokayev had proposed him at the session’s opening as “a responsible, qualified and experienced statesman” for a post that “should be held by a person known in the country, able to become the link between the people and the power”, and told the members that “a special responsibility rests on each member of the Halyq Kenesi”. In 5 days the second republic has re-seated the heads of its court, election commission and audit chamber, named a full constitutional bench with the Kurultai’s consent, and given its consultative chamber a chairman who ran the presidential administration from September 2019 to February 2022.
Tokayev names all 10 judges of the Constitutional Court in one morning, and the People’s Council he appointed on Tuesday sits for the first time
President Tokayev appointed 10 judges of the Constitutional Court by decrees published on Wednesday morning, 5 days after he reappointed Elvira Azimova as its chairwoman, Akorda’s list shows: Saken Abdolla, Leila Zhakayeva, Kairat Zhakipbayev, Aizhan Zhatkanbayeva, Aigul Kydyrbayeva, Kanat Musin, Bakyt Nurmukhanov, Sergey Skryabin, Aslan Tukiyev and Sergey Udartsev. The Kurultai gave its consent to the 10 at its sitting the same morning, on the presentation of Roman Sklyar, the head of the presidential administration, and in the same sitting cleared 8 members of the audit chamber, whom the president then appointed, and 6 of the election commission, Kazinform reported between 10:24 and 10:33. The same day the Qazaqstan Halyq Kenesi, the 126-member People’s Council whose composition he approved on Tuesday, opens its first session in Astana. In 5 days the second republic has re-seated the heads of the court, the election commission and the audit chamber, named a full bench and convened a consultative chamber, every one of them by the president’s signature, and the bench with a consent the Kurultai gave in a morning.
Tokayev names the 126 members of the People’s Council that replaces the Assembly of the People, and it meets on Wednesday
President Tokayev signed 2 documents on Tuesday: decree 1474, approving the composition of the Qazaqstan Halyq Kenesi, the People’s Council, with a list of 126 names, and order 331, convening its first session for 23 and 24 September in Astana, Akorda published. The constitutional law of 5 June, 298-VIII, calls the Council “the supreme constitutional consultative body representing the interests of the people of the Republic of Kazakhstan”, lets it submit draft laws to the Kurultai and initiate a national referendum, seats its members for 4 years in 3 groups of 42, from ethnocultural associations, from public associations and other non-profit organisations, and from maslikhats and public councils, and repeals the 2008 law on the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan.
Russia’s diesel to 4 buyers in Central Asia and Mongolia doubled in August to 370,000 tonnes, with Mongolia taking 215,000 and Kyrgyzstan’s intake rising from 4,400 to 72,000
Russian diesel exports to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia exceeded 370,000 tonnes in August, more than double July’s, traders told Reuters on Monday in figures Neftegaz.ru carried the same evening and Asia-Plus on Tuesday. Mongolia took about 215,000 tonnes against 124,000 in July, Kyrgyzstan more than 72,000 against 4,400, Tajikistan more than 56,000 against 16,000, and Kazakhstan, which imported none in July, about 28,000. Over January to August Russia sent 2.5 million tonnes of diesel to Central Asia and Afghanistan, against 2.6 million a year earlier.
London’s war-risk list now covers the whole Black Sea, and the open water off Georgia’s ports is inside it
The Joint War Committee’s circular of 16 September lists the Black Sea “excluding territorial waters of adjoining countries other than Russia and Ukraine”; until then, in the Black Sea, the London market listed the coastal waters of Russia and Ukraine. Dunya, the Turkish business daily, puts war-risk premiums at 1% to 1.5% of a ship’s insured value, against 0.1% to 0.2% in normal conditions, which can add $150,000 to $300,000 to a 7-day voyage. The new line crosses routes that call at neither belligerent’s ports: KazTransOil, which owns the Batumi oil terminal, sent 293,000 tonnes of cargo toward that port in August.
10 billion cubic metres, 4 years early
Tashkent said its gas would stay home. Astana promised 15 billion cubic metres more of it. Tashkent now imports what its minister had dated to 2030, Astana has nearly tripled its purchases from Gazprom in a year, and since Friday Washington is counting.
Kazakhstan's utilities overhaul has finished 14 of 347 projects as contractors win 112 complaints against its tenders
A deputy prime minister's review on Friday put the government's own numbers on the national project meant to renew Kazakhstan's utility and power networks by 2029. They show a programme budgeted at 13 trillion tenge and held up at the tender stage.
Trump signs the Graham act without a word, and the gas list's clock now runs to 18 October
The White House recorded the signature of H.R. 5334 on Friday 18 September in a single sentence. Under the law the president has 30 days to raise duties to as much as 100% on the 5 largest buyers of Russian oil or gas, and on CAW's count Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan sit at the edge of that 5.
Kazakhstan's army will clear mines from a Caspian seabed block for the pipelines of a Lukoil project that KazMunayGas paused in March
A draft law amending Kazakhstan's Tax Code, on public discussion until 25 September, states that the Ministry of Defence will demine area No. 200 of the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, through which the planned subsea oil pipelines of the Kalamkas-More and Khazar project are to run, Prime and Lada.kz reported on Thursday. The operator, Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP, a 50-50 venture of Lukoil and KazMunayGas, is to buy the equipment and transfer it to the ministry's ownership; KazMunayGas said in March that the project was suspended because of the sanctions imposed on Lukoil.