The former president — laying low since the country plunged into protest and violence in early January — hid banks, hotels, and a $100 million jet in a network of foundations that answer only to him.

Two oligarchs known to be close to the ‘Leader of the Nation’ were involved in a complex offshore arrangement that ended in a mysterious $30 million payment to his unofficial third wife.

Kazakh police detained poet Ramil Niyazov as he held a one-man anti-government protest on Thursday in Almaty, holding a banner that read “Publicity discloses the insignificance of authoritarianism. Nazarbayev, 1987.” 

A series of leaked emails to British newspaper The Daily Mail reveals the depth of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s advisory relationship to the government of Kazakhstan. Daily Mail reporters estimated Kazakh President Nursultan Nazabayev spent more than £ 20 million (US$ 29.1 million) to secure Blair's services.