Nurtai Abykayev

Nurtai Abykayevich Abykayev (Kazakh: Нұртай Әбіқайұлы Әбіқаев, Nurtay Äbiqayulı Äbiqayev; Russian: Нуртай Абыкаевич Абыкаев, Nurtay Abykayevich Abykayev) is the current Chairman of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan. Previously he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation and before this chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan. He is a long-time friend and assistant to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and is viewed as the leader of one of the political "clans" that make up Kazakhstan's elite.

Nurtai Abykayev was born on May 15, 1947 in Zhambyl, Kazakhstan. He studied at the Ural Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1970. This was followed by two years in the Soviet Red Army, after which Abykayev worked as an engineer in a heavy-machinery factory in Almaty (then Alma-Ata) until 1976. Throughout the 1980s he worked his way up the hierarchy of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, eventually becoming Nazarbayev's aide. After independence he served throughout the presidential administration until he was named ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1995. He returned to Kazakhstan the next year, and later became the head of the National Security Committee.

In August 1999 Abykayev was dismissed from his post as Chairman of the National Security Committee for his role in a scandal over the sale of old MiG fighter planes to North Korea by the Kazakhstan Ministry of Defense. Several members of his staff were arrested for their direct involvement in formulating the trade.

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