Timur Kulibayev — businessman with roots in the USSR
Timur Kulibayev is a Kazakhstani billionaire and the husband of Dinara Nazarbayeva — the daughter of founding President Nursultan Nazarbayev. He controls major stakes in Kazakhstan's energy, banking, and infrastructure sectors through Samruk-Kazyna, the national wealth fund, and private holdings, making him one of the most powerful figures in Central Asian business.
Tracing the roots — Kazakhstan
The marriage of Soviet-era elite and post-Soviet business power, Kulibayev and his wife Dinara represent the Russian-speaking Kazakhstani oligarchy that emerged from the USSR's collapse. All his business dealings are conducted in Russian — the language of post-Soviet Central Asian business — and he is deeply embedded in the Russian-speaking business world that spans Kazakhstan, Russia, and beyond.
Kazakhstan. At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.