Earlier this week Kazakhstan showed its hand as leaning more towards its old Communist self, than as a Central Asian state that might turn East, to China, for help.
Kazakhstan took over its biggest lender, BTA, and also began negotiations with Russia to sell assets. The nation's Samruk-Kazyna, the sovereign wealth fund handling bank bailouts, said it would buy 78.14% of BTA for $2.06 billion. This priced BTA at 0.2% of its book value.
The government was able to do this thanks to the Financial Stabilisation Law, which it passed on October 23, in the hope of strengthening the stability and resilience of the country's financial system in the face...