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Government Appointments

New Kazakhstan Government Retains Core Economic Team

Kazakhstan completed the formation of its first government under the country’s new unicameral parliament on September 3. Olzhas Bektenov remains prime minister and the core economic team will stay in place, but there were changes at the foreign, culture and information, ecology, and emergency situations ministries. The government resigned on August 28 following the election of the Kurultai, Kazakhstan’s new unicameral parliament, which replaced the Senate and Mazhilis. Ministers continued serving in an acting capacity while the new cabinet was formed. On August 31, the Kurultai approved Bektenov’s candidacy for prime minister. He received 137 votes, with seven lawmakers abstaining and none voting against. Continuity Across the Economic Team The new cabinet is marked above all by continuity. Nurlуbek Nalibayev remains first deputy prime minister. Serik Zhumangarin will continue to combine the positions of deputy prime minister and minister of national economy, while Kanat Bozumbayev remains deputy prime minister. Zhaslan Madiyev retained his dual role as deputy prime minister and minister of artificial intelligence and digital development. Madi Takiyev will continue to head the Finance Ministry, Yersayin Nagaspayev the Ministry of Industry and Construction, and Arman Shakkaliyev the Ministry of Trade and Integration. Yerlan Akkenzhenov remains as energy minister at a difficult time for Kazakhstan’s oil sector. In 2026, the country repeatedly faced disruptions to exports through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), the main route carrying Kazakh oil through Russia to the Black Sea. Astana is simultaneously trying to increase exports through alternative routes, expand oil refining, and bring new energy capacity online. Nurlan Sauranbayev will continue overseeing transport. Before joining the government in 2025, Sauranbayev spent four years heading Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the national railway company. Aidarbek Saparov remains agriculture minister, while Nurzhan Nurzhigitov is staying on as minister of water resources and irrigation. The latter ministry is responsible, among other things, for transboundary water issues – one of the most sensitive regional challenges in Central Asia. Galymzhan Koishybayev also retained his position as deputy prime minister and chief of staff of the government, a dual role he has held since January 2023. The main security ministries also retained their leaders. Dauren Kosanov continues as defense minister, Yerzhan Sadenov as interior minister, and Yerlan Sarsembayev as justice minister. Changes at Foreign Affairs and Other Ministries The most prominent new appointment came a day before the rest of the cabinet was confirmed. On September 2, Mukhtar Tleuberdi returned as foreign minister. He previously headed Kazakhstan’s diplomatic service from 2019 to 2023, including during the first year following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the past three years, Tleuberdi represented Kazakhstan as ambassdor to Austria and at international organizations in Vienna. Tleuberdi replaced Yermek Kosherbayev, who spent less than a year as foreign minister. His return comes as Kazakhstan deepens economic ties with China, negotiates with the United States and European Union on critical minerals, and seeks additional oil export routes while maintaining close relations with Russia. Arman Kyrykbayev was appointed minister of culture and information, replacing Aida Balayeva after she...

GKNB

Maksat Asanaliyev Approved as Kyrgyzstan Security Service Chief

On September 2, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved the appointment of Maksat Asanaliyev as chairman of the State Committee for National Security, the country’s main security and intelligence agency, usually known by its Russian acronym GKNB. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, the Jogorku Kenesh, gave its consent to Asanaliyev’s appointment following a nomination by President Sadyr Japarov. His appointment was approved by 87 votes to zero, with lawmakers asking no questions about his candidacy. Asanaliyev, 48, spent around nine years as a GKNB investigator before moving to the prosecutor’s office in 2010. He later served as a district prosecutor in Bishkek and prosecutor of the Osh Region before becoming prosecutor general in June 2024. His tenure as prosecutor general also coincided with growing scrutiny of the GKNB following Tashiyev’s departure. In April, Asanaliyev told parliament that 386 complaints concerning GKNB officers had been received and that the Military Prosecutor’s Office was investigating 18 criminal cases involving alleged corruption and abuse of office. Nine GKNB officers had been held accountable, eight of whom were in custody and one under house arrest. The change at the top of the GKNB has attracted particular attention because of the agency’s political weight in Kyrgyzstan. From 2020, the committee was headed by Kamchybek Tashiyev, one of Japarov’s closest allies and, for several years, one of the most influential figures in the country. Under Tashiyev, the security service’s influence over Kyrgyzstan’s political and economic life grew significantly. After his departure in February 2026, Jumgalbek Shabdanbekov took over the GKNB. He remained in the post for about four months before leadership passed to Asanaliyev, who was appointed acting chairman by Japarov on June 30. Tashiyev’s political career, meanwhile, ended in a criminal case. In July, a court found the former GKNB chief and seven others guilty of preparing a violent seizure of power. All eight were sentenced to four years in prison, but the court replaced the custodial sentences with three years of probation supervision. The case is now before the Bishkek City Court on appeal, with prosecutors seeking prison terms while Tashiyev’s defense is seeking an acquittal. Tashiyev, meanwhile, was subsequently convicted in a criminal case. In July, a court found the former GKNB chief and seven others guilty of preparing a violent seizure of power. All eight were sentenced to four years in prison, but the court replaced the custodial sentences with three years of probation supervision. The case is now before the Bishkek City Court on appeal, with prosecutors seeking to replace the probation sentences with prison terms, while Tashiyev’s defense is seeking an acquittal.

Government Appointments

Mukhtar Tleuberdi Returns as Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appointed Mukhtar Tleuberdi as foreign minister on September 2. One of Kazakhstan’s most experienced diplomats is returning to a post he previously held from 2019 to 2023. For the past three years, Tleuberdi has represented Kazakhstan in Austria and at international organizations in Vienna. Tleuberdi replaces Yermek Kosherbayev, who had headed the Foreign Ministry since September 2025. The change comes as a new administration takes shape following the election of the Kurultai. Kosherbayev spent less than a year in the post, but his tenure coincided with an intensification of Kazakhstan’s relationship with the United States. In July, he discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Kazakh oil exports through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, cooperation on critical minerals, U.S. investment, and preparations for Tokayev’s visit to the United States. Experience Returns Tleuberdi began his diplomatic career in 1993 and went on to hold ambassadorial and senior Foreign Ministry posts, including as ambassador to Malaysia and Switzerland. He returned to Astana as first deputy foreign minister in 2016 before taking over the ministry in September 2019. From January 2021 until April 2023, he also served as deputy prime minister. His first term as foreign minister coincided with one of the most challenging periods for Kazakhstan’s foreign policy. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Astana maintained close political and economic relations with Moscow while continuing to develop ties with China, the United States, and the European Union. In the context of the war in Ukraine, Kazakhstan continued to advocate respect for the principle of states’ territorial integrity. Tleuberdi represented that position in talks with the country’s major foreign partners. In 2022, his foreign travel itinerary included the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Japan, and Central Asian states. Tleuberdi left the government in April 2023 and was succeeded as foreign minister by Murat Nurtleu. Several months later, he was appointed Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Austria, while also representing Kazakhstan at international organizations based there, including the OSCE and IAEA. Tleuberdi now returns to the Foreign Ministry amid a restructuring of Kazakhstan’s political system. His appointment is among the first major personnel decisions following the start of work by the Kurultai, the country’s new unicameral parliament, which replaced the previous bicameral legislature. On August 31, Tokayev appointed Yerlan Karin as vice president, a position created by Kazakhstan’s 2026 constitutional reform. Olzhas Bektenov remained prime minister, while Aida Balayeva moved from the government to become deputy chair of the Security Council. Tleuberdi’s second term begins with a complex foreign policy agenda. Kazakhstan is simultaneously expanding economic ties with China, developing cooperation with the United States and the EU on critical minerals, seeking to diversify its oil export routes, and maintaining close relations with Russia.

Akorda

Erlan Karin’s Appointment Links Reform and National Identity

When President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev put forward Erlan Karin for vice president on August 31, he called him “a genuine patriot” with long experience in government. He also stressed Karin’s part in implementing major reforms, his grasp of long-term state strategy and his understanding of Kazakhstan’s prospects for socioeconomic development. Karin has spent seven years in senior posts under Tokayev. He also has a sustained interest in a question that runs through the president’s agenda — how Kazakhstan can modernize while remaining connected to its own history and national identity. Tokayev proposed creating the vice presidency in January as an institution that would “organically complete” a political architecture built over several years. The office would stabilize governance and clarify the hierarchy of power. The presidency, he insisted, would remain “the central pillar of the state system.” Under the new Constitution, the vice president acts on the president’s instructions and represents his position in dealings with the Kurultai, the government and other state bodies. Tokayev has presented political and economic reform as parts of the same modernization program. Opening the first session of the Kurultai, he said the new system should make public institutions more effective and open the way to prosperity. He then described structural economic reforms aimed at sustained growth in citizens’ welfare, including new industries, jobs and modern infrastructure. Karin already knows the institutions with which he will work. His senior positions since 2019 have included presidential adviser, assistant to the president, state secretary, state counselor and first deputy head of the Presidential Administration. In October 2025, Tokayev appointed him to lead the working group on parliamentary reform. Karin later became deputy chair of the Constitutional Commission, giving him experience with the reforms now taking effect. Before the official titles accumulated, Karin taught history and geography at a school in Aktobe. The subject stayed with him. In 2013, he published Balbaltas: From Orkhon to the Caspian, a study of Turkic stone monuments across the steppe. A decade later, he co-authored a catalogue of historical maps of Kazakhstan from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. In a 2023 essay on national identity, Karin connected those interests to state-building. Nation-building, he argued, required state institutions and national identity to develop together. He traced Kazakh statehood through the Golden Horde and the Kazakh Khanate, while describing modern Kazakhstan as a multiethnic and multireligious country. Patriotism, in his account, meant attachment and service to the country, not nationalism or xenophobia. He was most persuasive when he left the abstractions behind. His examples concerned what children encounter in museums and at historical sites, how they learn the country’s history, how the Kazakh language is used and how Kazakhstan appears in books and films. This was national identity as part of daily life rather than an official slogan. Tokayev drew the same connection when he explained why the new legislature was given the historical name Kurultai. Recalling the gatherings at Talas and Ordabasy, he said the choice did not signal nostalgia. It joined Kazakhstan’s...

Government

Kazakhstan Vice President and Prime Minister Approved by Parliament

Kazakhstan has begun its first major round of senior appointments since the new unicameral parliament, the Kurultai, started work. On August 31, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appointed Erlan Karin as vice president, retained Olzhas Bektenov as prime minister, and moved Aida Balayeva from the cabinet to the Security Council. Karin, who had previously served as first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, was the most significant appointment. The vice presidency in its current form was established under Kazakhstan’s 2026 constitutional reform. The post itself is not entirely new to the country: it existed during the first years of independence before being abolished in 1996. Under the new Constitution, at the president’s instruction, the vice president represents the president in interactions with the Kurultai, the government, and other state bodies. If presidential powers are terminated early, the vice president is first in line to assume them. The Kurultai must announce a presidential election within seven days, with the vote to be held within two months of that decision. Karin’s appointment therefore establishes, for the first time under the new system, who would assume presidential powers if the presidency became vacant before the end of a term. Karin is regarded as one of Tokayev’s closest advisers. He has worked alongside the president since 2019 and has served as presidential adviser, state secretary, state counselor, and first deputy head of the Presidential Administration. The creation of the vice presidency does not establish an independent political center alongside Tokayev. Instead, one of his most experienced political aides has taken the new constitutional office and become first in line to assume presidential powers if the office becomes vacant. Olzhas Bektenov, who has headed the government since February 2024, retained the post of prime minister. The Kurultai approved Bektenov’s candidacy by 137 votes, with seven abstentions and none opposed, after which Tokayev formally reappointed him. Meanwhile, Aida Balayeva left her posts as deputy prime minister and minister of culture and information to become deputy chair of the Security Council. Balayeva has long worked in Kazakhstan’s domestic policy establishment. She has served as an assistant to the president, deputy head of the Presidential Administration, minister of information and social development, and, since 2023, minister of culture and information. She now moves from the government to a body working directly under the president. The Kurultai replaced the Senate and Mazhilis, ending more than 30 years of bicameral parliament in Kazakhstan. All 145 members of the new chamber are elected through party lists. In the first election on August 23, the Adilet party won 71.17% of the vote and secured 110 of the 145 seats. Four other parties cleared the 5% threshold. With 110 seats, Adilet has enough deputies to approve presidential nominees requiring a simple majority without support from other parties. Under the new Constitution, however, the Kurultai has a formal role in senior appointments. Its consent is required for the appointment of both the prime minister and vice president, while most other government appointments follow consultations with the chamber....

Kazakhstan's Parliament

Kazakhstan’s Kurultai Has Begun Work, but the Intrigue Remains

Kazakhstan’s new unicameral parliament, the Kurultai, has held its first session and elected President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s nominee, Aibek Dadebay, as speaker. The choice of Dadebay, chairman of the recently created Adilet party, had been widely expected. Nevertheless, the arrangement differs markedly from the way political authority was organized under Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Under Nazarbayev, the ruling party – first Otan and later Nur Otan – was headed by the president himself, while its day-to-day work was managed by a first deputy chairman. The party’s parliamentary leadership was separate, while the Senate speaker was formally elected from a candidate nominated by the president. Under Tokayev, the model changed. Tokayev left the ruling party in 2022, shortly after Nur Otan was renamed Amanat, and the Constitution was amended to bar the president from party membership. Amanat later merged into the newly created Adilet party in June 2026. That Tokayev-era model has now carried over into the Kurultai: the chairman of the ruling party entered the new parliament and was elected speaker. The arrangement places responsibility for the party and its parliamentary majority more clearly in the same hands. Tokayev also spoke about the legislative responsibilities of deputies at the opening of the first session. “Laws must be fair, understandable to people, and progressive – that is, aligned with modern requirements. Since laws affect the fate and lives of citizens, every norm and every clause must be carefully considered and comprehensively discussed,” he said. Tokayev added that artificial intelligence could be used “to improve the quality of legislative activity and minimize corruption risks,” while stressing that “advanced technologies cannot replace professional legal expertise.” Yerlan Karin, first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, noted that 24 deputies have previous parliamentary experience, arguing that this would help preserve “institutional memory” in the new legislature. Karin himself is among the senior officials whose next role remains uncertain. Tokayev must still submit nominees for vice president and prime minister to the Kurultai. The current government relinquished its powers before the new parliament, in accordance with the Constitution, and the president will appoint members of the government after consultations with deputies. He will also make an appointment to the new position of deputy chairman of the Security Council. According to political analyst Talgat Kaliyev, political observers are discussing several possible candidates for vice president. One scenario cited by Kaliyev would see current Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov take the role, with Astana akim Zhenis Kassymbek replacing him as prime minister. “Others say that the current prime minister will retain his position, while Yerlan Karin will take the post of vice president,” Kaliyev said, arguing that Karin’s close involvement in Kazakhstan’s political reforms strengthens his case. Kaliyev said other possible candidates could include former Senate speaker Maulen Ashimbayev or former Mazhilis head Yerlan Koshanov, who is “also being tipped for the post of chairman of Kazakhstan Halyk Kenesi.” The appointments are expected to follow before Tokayev delivers his traditional annual Address, which he said would take place after...