Wise wizard Goodwin from the Emerald city

On the global net he is known as a person closed to the general public. However, he is also known as the main PR person of the President, the main analyst and ideologist of the Republic, and the main designer of the modern political system of Kazakhstan. “Exclusive” magazine continues the “Internet-portrait” project. As always, we tried to choose the most significant and interesting information from the Internet. Today, our hero is the minister of foreign affairs, who recently was the secretary of the Security Council and the assistant to the President in security issues, before that he was the chief of the KNB. Please welcome – Marat Tazhin.

He would know better than anyone the significance of a reputation. By the online public, he is called “experienced apparatchik”, “bison (strong player) of the modern world of political techniques”, “ideologist of the power” and “brain of the President’s team”. In short, he is a professional, currently leading the external policy institution, “he is practically the only analyst of such a level in Kazakhstan”. The latter was said by the author on the website http://www.iicas.org. The portal in the article, “What is KNB”, reminds us that: “Being a doctor of science in sociology, the creator and permanent head of the Center of Analysis and Strategic Research… Tazhin has created a strong analytical department in the President’s administration; the main concepts of Kazakhstan’s development were designed under his supervision, including the issues of national security, external policy and development of armed forces”. Another website, http://www.kreml.org adds the following: “When he was the first assistant and the secretary of the Security Council, he was undoubtedly in the top five leading officials of the country. Tazhin significantly influenced the course of the political processes; and people connect his appearance in the Security Council with the fact that it became the institution making the most important decisions for the elite and the population”. The portal http://www.eurasianhome.org provides an article by the Russian political scientist Stanislav Pritchin. In the article, called “Political patience of Astana”, he writes: “according to the general opinion of the experts, Tazhin was responsible for the most important problems of internal policy, including securing the results of the election cycle 2003-2005, favourable for the Presidents and the pro-presidential party “Otan”. Besides, he often acted as the negotiator among the advesary elite groups. Now Marat Tazhin’s experience and knowledge will be required on the international arena”. Thus, whom are we dealing with? According to the website http://www.compromat.ru, “Marat Mukhambetkazievich Tazhin was born in Aktyubinsk on 8th of April 1960. His father was the secretary on ideology of the party’s regional committee, and later was the head of department of the party’s history in different universities of Almaty. The connection between the standard of living of a given Soviet family and ideological knowledge was obvious to Marat. He graduated from the Institute of National Economy in Alma-Ata. As usual among most of ideological leaders of the Post-Soviet times, in 1985 he received the degree of candidate of science in philosophy. Currently he is a doctor of science in sociology, professor, member of the Academy of Social Sciences of Kazakhstan and Russia, President of the Academy of Political Science in Kazakhstan”. Victor Bunge, in the article “Familiar faces of Kazakhstan’s ministers. View from Russia.”, posted on the website http://www.ia-centr.ru, wrote the following: “The main designer of the modern political system of the Republic of Kazakhstan is stepping out of the shade and takes one of the key positions in the government. Marat Tazhin for Kazakhstan is the same as the wise wizard Goodwin for the Emerald city. Everybody has heard of him, but nobody knows anything specific. There were rumors that Tazhin will be assigned to the position of the ambassador to the USA, but it appeared that our country still can appreciate heroes. By the way, the President has given interesting tasks to the new minister: to improve the relations with the EU and further develop the relations with the USA. Now Nursultan Abishevich doesn’t need to worry about those foreign issues”. It would be redundant to write a lot about Tazhin’s loyalty to the President. On the official website of the country’s leader – http://www.akorda.kz – one can find the information on how the President presented the diplomats with their new leader. Nursultan Nazarbaev’s words about it were as follows: “For the last 15 years, Marat Tazhin has been working next to me. He is a scientist, doctor of science, expert, and my adviser on different issues, including external policy. I’m sure he will cope with all of the tasks and contribute to the success in the external policy of our country”. Even now we can find the echo of the discussions about Marat Tazhin’s participation in the President’s election campaign as his advisor. The website http://www.kub.kz in its section “through hearsay, but trustworthy” published the following article called “How the favorite got the “black mark”, the nephew received approval from his uncle, the President, and the editor received the documents of the Federal Security Service”. The author Dulat Musataev wrote the following: “They say that Marat Tazhin, the first deputy of the head of the President’s administration, but not the head of the administration himself (as it was before), will supervise Nursultan Nazarbaev’s election campaign. Apparently, the President entrusted the process of the election to this official, who has the reputation of a highly professional political strategist. By the way, apparently, Russian politicians are helped him in this task. Believe it or not, they say that everything that happened on the political stage of Kazakhstan (excluding the attack on the leaders of the “For a just Kazakhstan” party in Ust-Kamenogorsk and Chimkent) are elements of the plan, created by Tazhin last year after the parliamentary elections”. In the article written by Peter Babushki “Critical days for Marat Tazhin”, published on the same website, one could read the following: “[Tazhin] is known to be a reserved person. There is an aura of the mysterious adviser to the President around Mr. Tazhin”. The following is an extract from the article called “stakes are made. Who is entrusted with the country’s fate?” posted on http://www.liter.kz: “Hardly anyone would argue that Marat Tazhin is a new political recruit. Although he preferred to remain in the shade (for many people his biography is a mystery), nobody ever doubted his power... He is one of those who always enter the first circle of the President’s team. Most luckily, he has a direct connection to the President. To all appearances, he came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a particular task from the leader of the country. Maybe, he has to improve the relations of our country with our neighbours without losing the position that our country has gained in the world. Marat Tazhin is capable of doing the work, mentioned within the framework of the Central Asian Initiative. Maybe the new minister will direct the course of regional integration”. There is a lot of information about the latest appointment of the hero of today’s Internet-portrayal. The experts convey the same idea in different words. For example, the website http://wwwkazbio.info in the article “Circles on the sand” with a reference to http://centrasia.ru publishes the following: “The appointment of Marat Tazhin to the position of minister of foreign affairs is no less appropriate. Although he was the main ideologist of the internal political strategy of Kazakhstan, many people have forgotten that he also contributed to the formation of external policy. Taking into account his significance in the modern policy of the country – as the ideologist and practical leader – there is no better person for the position of the head of the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), who could give a new impulse to its activity, strengthen its role in the government and develop new approaches to the work. During the years of independence, Marat Tazhin became one of the rare persons whose political power ceased to depend on the formally occupied position. The successful election cycle 2003 – 2005 and the increased importance of the Security Council as a political institution are examples of Tazhin’s recent achievements”. The information portals inform us about Tazhin’s first international visits as the new minister of foreign affairs and his first comments. The electronic version of the “ExpressK” newspaper - http://www.express-k.kz – published the article called “On the ordered altitude - 2”. The article contains the following: “Sergey Lavrov characterized Marat Tazhin’s first visit to Moscow as “very successful”. It means that they found a common language of partners, aiming towards the achievement of common goals. Since Marat Mukhanbetkazievich came to the MFA, two new departments, aimed at forecasting the future geopolitical situations, have been created there; also the principle of unidirectionality of the minister’s actions has been introduced. All of this happened not without purpose: separate fingers form a strong fist. The MFA is given concrete tasks, which, I’m sure, will be fulfilled, as well as many other tasks, already fulfilled by Marat Tazhin”. The same newspaper reports on Tazhin’s visit to Turkey in the same format and mood. Arat Chalmonov, in the article “PR marches in Kazakhstan, or hot news from the corridors of power in Astana”, from the website http://zakon.kz, wrote: “Lately, Marat Tazhin, who is growing into his new role as the minister of foreign affairs, has developed a wide PR campaign. He doesn’t keep to the beaten track, his main efforts are aimed at introducing new nuances into the management system of the diplomatic service. Original but controversial innovations were introduced into the work of the ministry and the ministry’s control over the external economic course was strengthened. Tazhin’s attempts are supported by the Prime-Minister”. Taking into account the above, one can understand the MFA’s initiative to create the inter-agency group that would coordinate the government’s policy relating to the country’s image. This issue is covered on the website http://www.kub.kz in an article called “Image is everything”. The article contains Tazhin’s words: “The MFA is given the task to promote the positive image of Kazakhstan abroad, therefore the Committee on International Information was created”. The website http://dumaem.ru provides the two-year old information. The name of the article is “Marat Tazhin: strategist, conspirator and ideologist, all in one”. “This official has always had a great intuition, which allowed him to forge an outstanding career in a short period of time. This intuition should always be taken into account – sometimes it seems that a person with a good intuition acts illogically, but later it appears that his actions were perfectly logical and he wins”. Aygul Omarova, on the website http://zonakz.net, wrote about Tazhin’s speech for the journalists at the briefing of the secretary of the Security Council, who he was at that time. “After several sentences addressed to the journalists and the mass media in general, Mr. Tazhin asked the journalists to be more precise in citing his words. He also made assurances that he has always respected the mass media, and he wouldn’t reply to the pinpricks that he hears or sees in the mass media”. As we can see, any government official would wish for such characteristics, like those ascribed to Tazhin on the Internet. A person who doesn’t know anything about Tazhin, could be surprised with the amount of epithets, which show that their authors are sure of his professionalism. At the same time, we cannot say that Marat Mukhanbetkazievich is considered to be charismatic. By the way, there is a lot of information in the Internet, which means that he creates some interest among the people. The largest share of the information relates to his activity, reputation, and career. However, the search engines also provide some additional information. For example, the website of the Center on Studying Socio-Political Processes on the post-Soviet territory, http://www.ia-centr.ru, contains an article by Akram Asrorov; “Kazakhstan’s government: laying out the patience”. The author calls Tazhin “old new”, defines him as a technocrat, who can think pragmatically and possesses technical skills. The author also touches the demographic aspect: “Notice that the current ministers of Kazakhstan don’t have large families… Marat Tazhin has one daughter”. Tazhin’s sign of the zodiac is also mentioned in the article – Aries. By the way, five other ministers are of the same sign of the zodiac: Serik Akhmetov, minister of transport and communication, Anatoly Dernovoy, minister of healthcare, Temirkhan Dosmukhambetov, minister of tourism and sport, Nurlan Iskakov, environment minister, and Natalya Korzhova, minister of finance. The same author gives his vision of the future. He compares Marat Tazhin with Zhanseit Tuymebaev and Galym Orazbakov, who are both 40+ in their abilities as a politician. The former wins the comparison, due to having more experience in working in the President’s apparatus; which means he is better at everything that relates to intrigues within the surroundings of the President. Time will tell if the forecasts will come true. However, the Internet, along with the other types of mass media, continues to provide information about the action of the new leader of the institution supervising external policy. More detailed comments by Marat Tazhin start to appear in the press, the information published in the media contains more of his citations; probably, his personal life will become a little bit more accessible. After all, his position and future perspectives imply some degree of openness, and maybe candor, if the people are lucky enough.