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Heckuva job, Dog Eater

By Rakhat Aliyev and James Addison White (Trans.)

By Rakhat Aliyev, from The Godfather-in-Law: The Real Documentation, an exposé of corruption in the administration of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, published this spring in Germany by trafo Verlag. In 2007, Aliyev was dismissed from his post as Kazakh ambassador to Austria, divorced by Nazerbayev’s daughter, and indicted for racketeering. Now living in Austria, Aliyev has been sentenced in absentia to forty years in prison for crimes including plotting a coup. He contends that the charges are political retaliation for his stated intention to run for president. Translated from the Russian by James Addison White.

All elite members of the government of Kazakhstan have nicknames. President Nazarbayev started this tradition personally. He is a big fan of clever phrases. But the nicknames of Nazarbayev’s mafia “team” are completely unknown to the public. What a shame! They would provide such fodder for psychologists and linguists.

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SEE ALSO: Career as president of Kazakhstan—Humor; Kazakhstan; 1991-; Nicknames; Nazarbaev, Nursultan; Officials and employees

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