Mazhilis deputy Bakhytzhan Bazarbek demanded that Prosecutor General Berik Asylov take personal control of inspections into the illegal alienation of land at the Kapchagay Reservoir and the Ili River. According to the parliamentarian, dozens of plots ended up in the ownership of relatives of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, former officials, generals and oligarchs.
According to Bes.media, Bazarbek reported that in July–August 2025, inspectors from the Department for Land Resource Management (DLRM) and the Balkhash-Alakol Basin Inspectorate (BABI) identified serious violations on 50 out of 81 inspected plots.
The land was located in a water protection zone and was allocated by the Kapshagay akimat in violation of the land and water codes. Among the owners of the plots were Timur and Askar Kulibayev, Bolat Nazarbayev, relatives of the former akim of Almaty region Amandyk Battalov, as well as other high-ranking individuals.
The Mazhilis member noted that all owners of the 50 plots have already been issued orders to remedy the violations, but that the inspectors are under pressure from the business elite and officials.
He publicly supported the heads of the Committee for Land Resource Management (CLRM) and the DLRM for their principled stance.
Separately, Bazarbek reported on the illegal privatisation of land in the Ili district. According to him, the former district akim Nikolai Logutov allocated land plots to his own family through front persons.
It is noted that the ex-official's son Konstantin Logutov now owns more than 10 thousand hectares, which is comparable to the area of the city of Konayev.
The deputy suggested that certain employees of the Almaty region prosecutor's office may be covering up Logutov's activities, and stated that their names will be listed in his parliamentary inquiry.
For context, in 2022 the editorial team of FBRK published a series of articles about who owns the shores of Lake Shchuchye. We wrote about who owns the lands within the SEZ 'Burabay', in the area of the arboretum, near Shchuchinsk city, on the side of Maloye Chebachye Lake, as well as certain plots near the Republican Educational and Health Centre 'Baldau'ren', in the area of 'Sanatorium Shchuchinsky' and in the area of the 'Almaz' sanatorium. In the final part, we reported who owns the coastal area of the lake south of the 'Almaz' sanatorium.
In 2023, the FBRK editorial team conducted a large-scale journalistic investigation into the drying up of the Maloye Taldykol lakes, analysing more than 100 plots and over 360 hectares of land, and also compiled a list of the largest landowners in the area. Read the details of the investigation at the link.