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52 BARBARA JUNISBAI 19. Gulzhan Ergalieva, editor in chief, Svoboda Slova opposition newspaper, December 21, 2005, http://www.medialaw.kz/index.php?r=87&c=1651. 20. In an interview (May 17, 2007), Oleg Katsiev explained: “In the late 1990s and early 2000s the national and regional media outlets that were bought up by elites were simply not profitable. It’s only just recently that big media companies can bring in profits, and even in these cases not all do.” 21. Perhaps the first attempt to run a public campaign against President Nazarbaev was undertaken in 1998 by former prime minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the president’s main political rival at the time. Kazhegeldin established the longest-running Kazakh-language opposition newspaper, Dat, and is said to have opened a series of Russian-language newspapers as part of his political campaign. These papers, however, came under formal and informal pressure and were quickly shut down. For a detailed account, see Suleimenov, Ashimbaev, and Andreev 2003. While Kazhegeldin has been in political exile for more than ten years, Dat has been issued under different names and subjected to fines, closures, and lawsuits. In 2007, Dat was called Taszharghan and was published in both Russian and Kazakh. 22. See Obrashchenie Demvybora k Kazakhstantsam, November 21, 2001, http://www.kub. info/print.php?sid=405. The DCK had five political demands: an independent judiciary; greater parliamentary powers; popular election of governors; liberalizing the media; and greater control over natural resource exploitation. The last two demands are closely related to the discussion in this chapter. Because those in the second tier were restricted from desired media outlets and kept out of the oil, gas, and metals industries, it made sense that these should be included in their demands, framed as key issues that would benefit Kazakhstan’s citizens as a whole rather than their own self-interest. 23. In effect, they faced a glass ceiling that prevented them from realizing their business ambitions. In an interview (Almaty, December 19, 2006, emphasis added), Abilov recounted: “I had already reached the ceiling in business. We built a major shopping center [torgovyi tsentr, the equivalent of a mall] in Almaty and purchased a series of other businesses. And so what? It was not interesting to me anymore; I had already accomplished all of that. Why couldn’t I get into other big manufacturing projects, metal processing, the oil sector, or the gas sector? They let in their own, their relatives, those close to them, others who paid big bribes. I ran into a ceiling in which they said to me, ‘Boy, feel free to build another Ramstor [grocery store/shopping center chain in Kazakhstan]. Be content with what you have . . . We let you get this far; we didn’t touch you. You should be happy with that.’” 24. Recounting this period, Oleg Katsiev explains: “It turned out that those who suddenly went into the opposition had their own small television companies, but no one knew KAZAKHSTAN’S “INDEPENDENT” MEDIA 53 about it before. What does this mean? Perhaps it signifies that they were preparing for their protest in advance. They needed some mass media outlets, which would be useful in their efforts. The regional companies in Aktobe and in Pavlodar and others in the oblast centers were not profitable businesses at all, especially at that time. But they [the DCK founders] bought them anyway. This suggests that they were primarily needed to further their owners’ interests” (interview with the author, Almaty, May 17, 2007). 25. Kazakhstan is divided into fourteen provinces (called oblasts), each governed by an akim (governor) directly appointed by the president. 26. Petr Svoik, a current NGO leader, cofounder of the Azamat opposition party in 1996, a former member of Kazakhstan’s parliament, and former minister, explains that “the airing of this television program [on Zhakiyanov] was not an accident. At that time Channel 31 was controlled by—let’s say was helped by—the opposition, and programs of this type were short, but they were done with public politics in mind” (interview, Almaty, January 31, 2007). 27. Although the president’s press secretary announced that the president supported the DCK’s political platform (Kazakhstan Today, November 21, 2001), in a speech on KTK, the president, standing next to Aliev, criticized the DCK founders for breaking the law and avoiding taxes (KTK, November 20, 2001). 28. Interview with Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, Almaty, February 28, 2007. 29. For details on attacks...

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