Johanna Popjanevski - The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst

6Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 12 December2007parliament, rules allowing parties to select after theballot which of their candidates will becomemembers of legislature, and excessive restrictions onthe Kazakhs’ rights to seek public office.Since August, Kazakh and OSCE representativeshave been exchanging views how to overcome theseelection problems. According to U.S. officials, theirKazakh counterparts have pledged to improve theircountry’s civil rights practices—especially theirelectoral laws and media freedoms—by 2010. UnderSecretary of State for Political Affairs NicholasBurns said: “These are very importantcommitments by the Government of Kazakhstan.We intend to see that these commitments areimplemented.”Nevertheless, some human rights anddemocracy advocates criticizedKazakhstan’s designation as OSCEPresident. Human Rights Watch saidthat placing Kazakhstan in charge ofthe OSCE’s human rights policies was“a singularly bad idea.” FreedomHouse—which rates Kazakhstan as“not free” and had opposed allowingKazakhstan to assume the OSCEchairmanship in 2009 —indicated theorganization would withholdjudgment pending evidence that theKazakh government would fulfill itspromises to make its domestic politicalsystem more democratic and support the OSCE’shuman rights objectives internationally.In the end, Western governments apparentlydecided that Kazakhstan was too important acountry to alienate over the Presidency issue.Europeans are counting on obtaining increasingsupplies of Kazakh oil and gas in coming years.Western countries are presently engaged in amassive project to develop Kazakhstan’s offshoreKashagan oil field. The Kazakh government hasalready expressed displeasure regarding the slowerthan expected progress at the field. RejectingKazakhstan’s OSCE bid would have added yetanother layer of tension.In addition, the United States and its allies worriedthat Russian officials might exploit their differenceswith Kazakhstan to bind Astana closer to Moscow.At Madrid, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovopenly attacked Western countries for seeking tolink Kazakhstan’s appointment to changes in itsgovernment’s polices: “Unfortunately, during theseveral years that have preceded today’s meeting,there were absolutely unacceptable and unseemlymaneuvers concerning this bid aimed at creatingconditions on the right of a specific country—anequal member of the OSCE—to chair thisorganization by making demands on its internal andexternal policies.”IMPLICATIONS: One of the most importantissues for the Kazakhstan presidency could beresolving the dispute between Westerngovernments and Moscow and its allies over thefunctions and authority of the OSCE Organizationfor Democratic Institutions and Human Rights(ODIHR). The governments of Russia and theother former Soviet republics have called forreducing the OSCE’s democracy promotion efforts,especially in the area of election monitoring. AtMadrid, Lavrov said the OSCE was facing a“moment of truth” since, in his assessment, theorganization either had to change its ways or “thewhole European security architecture couldcollapse.” In contrast, most Western governments