Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe interview

     Almost five years after Rakhat Aliyev cast me to my death from the 9th story of a Lebanese hotel, he was interviewed by a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter about his 2009 book Godfather-In-Law, a tell-all account of life in Kazakhstan under Nazarbaev.  I have a different version of events and would like to share, as well as offer a counterpoint to his statements.

     The interview begins with the genesis for the book: why did Rakhat write it?  Where did it come from?
     Rakhat claims to have watched Nursultan Nazarbaev turn away from his obligations and become dictitorial.  He fled in February 2006 after being unable to "allow myself to continue standing with a leader who would use any legitimate and illegitimate methods. I would say that from that moment, a sort of banal, criminal governing system was formed".  This answer glosses over Alieyv's meteoric rise, multiple counts of murder including the mother of his illegitimate child, who happens to be me, and an almost bottomless lust for corruption and extortion.

     The first question pertains to the book and why Aliyev wrote it.  The answer is a damage control, blaming Nazarbaev for all the ills on Kazakhstan.  It overlooks Aliyev's positions in the country, notably his job in the 1990s  including "a series of high-level positions in law enforcement, financial police and tax collection agencies, rising to first deputy head of the KNB, the Kazakh security service".  It was in these positions he made most of his money and attempted a coup in 2001, disguised as a reform of the intelligence service.  While deputy head of security, he abused his power to embezzle and execute hostile takeovers of companies, a trend that would repeat in January 2007.  The resulting twin murder saw Aliyev exiled to Vienna as the ambassador in February 2007.

     Aliyev goes on to indirectly blame Nazarbaev for the death of Altynbek Sarsenbaev, the former Kazakh ambassador to Russia and former Information Minister in February 2006.  This contradicts evidence appearing later on blaming Aliyev for Sarsenbaev's death. Aliyev was rumored to have ordered the death and is now covering his tracks.  In December 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed this theory.

     Later on in the interview, Aliyev denies his familial tie to Nazarbaev helped him.  He implies possession of a working knowledge of economics, despite being trained as a surgeon, a practice he rapidly abandoned in 1983 after marrying Nazarbaev's daughter. Rakhat currently possesses medical and economic doctorates, was a general in the Kazakh KGB and picked one of the most plumb ambassadorships available, representing Kazakhstan in Vienna, where he fathered my child.  This is a vast array of jobs and positions to be held by one man.  Usually such position are the culmination of years on the job and one doesn't hold all of them.  Only political favoritism creates such results.

   The rest of the interview is more of this, with Rakhat Aliyev attempting to portray himself as a dissident against the Nazarbaev regime and he, himself is innocent of all charges.  This is false, the only thing he dissents from is the decent treatment of his fellow human beings. 
    

Anastasiya Novikova: My Life Story

This was me, with my baby Luiza.

This is my life story.

In 1978, I was born to my parents Gregoriy Novikov and Tatyana Medvedeva in Tashkent. I moved to Kazakhstan from Uzbekistan in 2001 in my early 20s. I first took a job at a theater, where I met Rakhat Aliyev.  Looking back, I wish I'd never have accepted his offer. Our sordid love affair began soon after, and he gave me a job on NTK as an anchor for Lunar News, a program on astrology.  NTK is a TV network belonging to Alma-Media, a media holding Rakhat was a recent stakeholder in.

I was his mistress while Rakhat was the ambassador to Austria (2001-2005), exiled there because of political scandal at home.  His wife, the daughter of Kazak president, did not know at the time. While in Austria as his mistress, I was forced into a marriage with Danijar Esten as a cover for Rakhat's dalliance, as I had become pregnant with Rakhat's child.  I only knew my little girl for six months.    My baby girl was taken away from me in January 2004 and given to Danijar's mother.  She has no recollection of any of this.  Danijar himself was killed in a mysterious traffic accident in Vienna in 2005.

The pregnancy was too much for Rakhat to bear. His wife was the daughter of the Kazak president, and he was the ambassador.  His prestige would be hurt, so he flew me to Beruit as a place to hide his shame.  I was now an unfortunate problem, neglected and used up and a prisoner of the man who promised me a new world.  While in Beruit, I was treated very poorly because I was carrying his child.  She was eventually born here.  Emotionally abused and used up, I felt as though no one cared about me.  I found someone else, someone who saw me as a person and not just a slab of meat.  He saw he as a person, not as a shame upon his family.

Then Rakhat found out and came to exact his revenge for finding someone who cared about me as something more than an object.   He took me to an apartment and beat me.

 He beat me for five and a half months.

The apartment is something no one could ever forget.  One room was mattresses, video cameras; meat hooks on the walls and jammed windows.  It was to become my torture chamber, rape cell and home.  My baby was taken from me. I would never see her again. For hours, Rakhat would film himself and compatriots beating me, whipping me, flaying me and raping me, all for the cheating on him.  This is the same man who took a mistress to a foreign capitol and impregnated her.

June 19, 2004 brought  the daily routine of torture and humiliation to an end.  Having had their fun, I was cast off a roof and onto a pile of rebar, impaling and killing me.  Officially ruled as a "accident, possibly suicide," by a local medic in the service of the municipal court, Asem Haydar, I was actually murdered by Rakhat Aliyev. He appeared in Beirut the same day to declare my death an unfortunate suicide.

Suicide victims do not bear the marks of torture, including lacerations, cuts and multiple fractured bones.  My body does.

My cold and defiled body was then slipped out of Austria in violation of law on an Atyrau Aue Zholy airplane. I was buried in the southern kazakhstani town of Taraz after my execution and was only discovered in early August 2007, some three years later. My body still showed signs of multiple fractures and signs of my torture. My family only reported me missing two weeks before I was found on July 26, 2007.

Rakhat is still out there.  He went on to murder two bankers and currently resides in an Austrian jail, where he may finally be held accountable for my death, among others.