At times, though, Aliev’s ““untraditional’’ style of law enforcement looks a lot like old-fashioned political abuse of power. The tax chief’s wife is Dariga Nazarbayeva, head of Khabar, the state television station. Her father is Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Soviet-era leader who continues to run the country. Early last week he won re-election as president in elections that were widely criticized by international observers. The only credible challenger, former prime minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, was disqualified for meeting with members of an unregistered political party. Aliev makes no apologies for his own actions during the campaign. In the months before last week’s vote, he sent his forces out on at least two raids against opposition newspapers. In an interview with NEWSWEEK, he also admitted encouraging authorities in Belgium to investigate the rival candidate’s past financial dealings there. No charges have been filed. Aliev denies any misconduct, and he sees no conflict of interest in his family ties. ““I have no complex’’ about it, he says coolly.
No one disputes Kazakhstan’s need for a tough tax collector. The government is deep in the red, with an expected 1999 deficit of $1 billion–one sixth of the total budget. The global economic crisis and the collapse of the world oil market are partly to blame. But the basic fiscal problem runs deeper. Kazakhs are among the stingiest taxpayers in the world–even worse than the Russians, who have earned a name as some of the most obstinate tax evaders anywhere. According to diplomats who keep tabs on the subject, 60 percent of the individuals on Kazakh tax rolls pay no taxes or close to none.
All across the former Soviet Union, economists are warning that chronic nonpayment of taxes is a growing threat to national stability. If the problem continues, predicts Clifford G. Gaddy, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, ““you’re just going to spiral downward, with a shrinking ability to pay for public health, national security, education, environmental protection and law enforcement.’’ The deeper it goes, the more hopeless it gets.
Can Aliev save the country? His formidable father-in-law gives him a rare edge. ““A tax collector who really tried to do his duty would be a dead man’’ under other circumstances, says Anatol Lieven, an expert on the former Soviet Union at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies. Some of Aliev’s tactics have been questionable. One of his first official acts two years ago was to handcuff a British oilman on national television. The man spent more than a week in jail until his company paid $5 million. Aliev said the money was ““back taxes.’’ Many local expats called it ransom. ““They’ve decided foreign investors are cash cows,’’ complains a Western diplomat. ““They have been extremely heavy-handed.’’ Still, the approach has shown results. Aliev yawns at his critics. ““We aren’t here to be loved,’’ he says. No argument there.
