Serik Akhmetov


Serik Nyghmetuly Akhmetov was a Prime Minister of Kazakhstan from 2012 to 2014. He served as the Minister of Defense from April to October 2014.
Akhmetov served for a time as Deputy Governor of Astana before being appointed to the Government of Kazakhstan as Minister of Transportation on 25 September 2006. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Atameken National Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers of Kazakhstan since 2005. President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Akhmetov as Prime Minister following the resignation of Karim Massimov on 24 September 2012.

Russia

Akhmetov met with Igor Levitin, the Russian Transport Minister on 25 October 2006. Akhmetov proposed building a transport corridor using preexisting roads from southern Kazakhstan through Kazan and Orenburg to St. Petersburg. Minister Levitin said the Russian Government would consider the proposal, but that it wanted the corridor to go through Chelyabinsk. They discussed the "transit of planes from Asia to Europe" and transportation through the Caspian Sea. Levitin plans on making a working trip to Aqtau to further discuss sea transportation. On 9 November Akhmetov and Levitin met in Aqtau, signing an agreement creating a train and ferry link between Aqtau and Makhachkala ports. The first ferry will carry 52 freight cars of grain and oil products on 10 November.

China

He traveled with Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov, Finance Minister Natalya Korzhova, and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov to Beijing, China from 16–17 November 2006 to boost bilateral relations.

Prison

Akhemetov was convicted of corruption and given a ten-year prison sentence in December 2015; he was released from prison after two years, on September 21, 2017.
2015, for the false Internet post about Akhmetov's death, the notorious Kazakhstani blogger, a political critic of the government of Zhandos Bayshemirov, was detained. Many independent human rights and freedom of speech organizations have noted that the harassment of a blogger does not meet democratic standards.

Personal characteristics

He is fluent in English, Russian and Kazakh. He is married and has 2 children.