 Lord Mayor flying into a storm in Kazakhstan Martin Waller, 21.07.2009  Ian Luder, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, is in danger of being dragged into a controversy during next week’s official visit to Kazakhstan over the detention of a leading businessman. I understand that the wife of the man who used to run Kazatomprom, the state-owned nuclear company, has written to Mr Luder requesting that her husband’s case be raised by his delegation when they meet ministers and business leaders in the country.The letter says that Mukhtar Dzhakishev was arrested without charge on May 21, along with other senior managers. Zhamilya Dzhakishev wants the Lord Mayor to circulate the letter to the business people who will accompany him on the delegation, which would be highly embarrassing. “I do ... want you to understand the political and economic risks to which companies on your delegation are exposing themselves,” she writes. Some say that the arrests have to do with manoeuvring over the successor to the authoritarian President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stands down in 2012. Guildhall referred any questions to British officials in Kazakhstan. The Times |
