UN Security Council: Kazakhstan

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Tuesday 12th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, I agree with much of what the noble Lord has said. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights noted that, while the elections were “efficiently organised”, there was still room for much improvement and there needs to be a “genuine political choice” and more media pluralism.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, we all recognise the importance of Kazakhstan and the other central Asian countries in the stability of Asia—in particular, given their Sunni Muslim populations, in the enormous overlapping problems between central Asia and the rest of the Middle East. Nevertheless, we recognise that there is a good deal of corruption in Kazakhstan. Has the noble Earl noted the number of Kazakhs who came into Britain in recent years under the tier 1 investor visa scheme? Have we checked whether the money they invested in Britain was lawfully acquired in Kazakhstan?

[The Earl of Courtown]

The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, makes some very interesting points. I will ensure that we look—