MOSCOW—Less than a month ago, before Kazakhstan erupted in protest that was met with the government’s iron fist, Don Streu, president of Calgary’s Condor Petroleum, filmed a video celebrating the 30th anniversary of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
In directing the response, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who was viewed by many as a moderate reformer, has sorely tested the rationale of political stability that many foreign firms have used to justify doing business in the country. Saskatoon-based uranium producer Cameco is the most significant of the Canadian firms doing business in Kazakhstan. Since 2009, it has been operating the Inkai uranium mine — one of the world’s largest — in a joint venture with the national atomic firm Kazatomprom.
“Nobody’s pulling out. Nothing changes, except for the violence of course and he challenge to the government on many fronts — and we don’t know what the fronts are,” she said. Over the weekend, Karim Massimov — a two-time former prime minister — was deposed as the head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service and arrested Saturday on charges of state treason, the details of which have not been revealed.