Ex-president’s brother passes away: the family’s ‘enfant terrible’

Former President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s younger brother Bolat has died at the age of 70 following a long illness, the ex-president’s office announced on Monday.

Like many in the former first family, Bolat Nazarbayev made the most of his position to enrich himself and indulge his desires.

Bolat Nazarbayev did that in a particularly crude and unashamed way, becoming a grotesque embodiment of the moral depravity within former President Nazarbayev’s family.

He will be remembered for his numerous ‘marriages’ and lavish parties, at which he would sometimes take out of his pocket a stack of 100-dollar notes and hand them out to his guests.

A former collective farm plumber, whose first wife was a school cook, he went on to sell beer and then to create a business empire and become one of the country’s biggest landlords, reportedly owing whole districts in Almaty region.

According to various reports, Bolat Nazarbayev added new ‘pieces’ to his business empire by simply demanding that the owners hand over to him all of their business or a substantial share in it.  

Bolat Nazarbayev was particularly interested in markets, and at one point owned, not always officially, practically all major markets in Almaty Region, according to reports.

It was also said that he, along with some other members of the former president’s family, controlled the crossing of goods through the Chinese border, i.e. shipping and trading businesses paid duties to them, not the state.

Bolat Nazarbayev was also at one point on the board of directors of the copper giant Kazakhmys.

He was well known for his unscrupulous and ‘busy’ love life involving numerous unofficial ‘wives’, mistresses and favourites. As a result, allegedly in his own words, he lost count of how many children he had.

He got involved in a legal dispute with one of his former wives, Mayra Kurmangaliyeva, over a New York apartment. After the authorities opened criminal investigations against Kurmangaliyeva on suspicion of swindling, extortion and kidnapping, she agreed to settle. Reportedly, she gave up her claims on the New York apartment, but got a house in New Jersey and jewellery worth 75m dollars.

Bolat Nazarbayev loved lavish parties and giving expensive presents to his women (Bugatti and Mercedes cars) and childhood friends (jeeps and houses).

His children own various businesses. One of his sons, Nurbol, at one time served as Almaty Region’s deputy police chief.

After his brother stepped down as president in 2019, Bolat Nazarbayev lost a number of his businesses and land plots.

Reports on 4 November said Bolat had a heart attack and was in hospital. Last week, the former president’s office issued a picture of Nursultan Nazarbayev visiting his brother, who looked emaciated and was seated in a wheelchair.

The former president is 83.

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