Leadership of the City of Kostanay plan on spending KZT 11 billion to tidy up the city in the light of Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to the Kazakhstan-Russia Inter-Regional Forum.

Special Reason

Local Akimat confirmed plans to spend the said amount to build a Smart-Center, refurbish the northern sector of the Pritobolsky Park, repair street lights, install new bus-stop shacks, landscape streets, refurbish fountains, replace rock pavement, repair roads, dwelling buildings and decorate and tidy up the city. Besides, they plan on building a road connecting the North-Western part of the city and the Airport Township. All those works are to be completed by fall.

Given the above, we have an immediate question – what prevented local leadership from refurbishing the city before Putin’s visit, or any visit of a political person? In continuation to that question, we have another – will all funds be used for the purpose, or is Putin’s visit nothing else, but a convenient justification to boost up local budgets?

Not a bone in the truck…

Kazakhstan has a well-developed tradition of the dog and poly shows – depending on upcoming big festivities and visits of big political figures.

There is nothing shocking in the news that somebody wants to spend a fortune to prepare Kostanay to the visit of the Russian President. In the past, they used to do the same in the eyes of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s planned visit to various locations.

In reality, those improvements and refurbishments did not differ much from the phenomenon of Potemkinism, i.e. nice villages built along the supposed route of the Russian Empress Yekaterina the Second to Ukraine. There are cases, when citizens of Kazakhstan complain that their local bosses refurbish the exteriors of their communities, leaving the interiors unattended and creating the false impression of prosperity.

Kyzylorda folks remember the situation, when in the light of the upcoming visit of Nursultan Nazarbayev to the city, local authorities appropriated enormous amounts for the city refurbishment …

Kyzylorda Dog and Pony Show

Kyzylorda authorities decided to organize an exhibition of big and middle-size companies. The venue was a big uninsulated hangar in the territory of the city’s main road construction company. The venue was more spacious than the famous Atakent Exhibition Park in Almaty. The hangar itself was built back in the 70-s of the 20^th century and it was not refurbished since the 80-s. Local government, in the first run, refurbished the hangar, paved new asphalt, cleaned territory from debris, improved the exterior of the office building and installed a fountain and an aquarium in there. They also planted numerous trees and a layer of grass there.

The refurbishment was performed only where the President was supposed to attend. The other locations became homes for debris and written-off rusty remains of road construction machinery.

We do not know, whether the former President appreciated that, but we very much hope he did.

Nonetheless fascinating were preparations to President Nazarbayev’s various meetings to Kostaay throughout various years. Kostanay folks specifically remember the refurbished exteriors of the buildings looking at the streets and worn-out back walls of the same buildings. Of course, nobody ever cared about the realistic refurbishment of the buildings. The same happened in Taraz, where local Akim ordered to paint exterior walls looking at the central streets of the city. In other words, cosmetic refurbishment is a common practice. The open question is, where do they direct those enormous budgets …