Angela Kane on the Modern History of Kazakhstan

VCDNP Senior Fellow and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane was featured in a new documentary film "Naznachenniy Vremenem" (Chosen by the Time) about the modern history of Kazakhstan. The film, directed by filmmaker Radik Kudoyarov, is dedicated both to Kazakhstan's founding and to the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's capital city of Astana.

Leading up to Ms. Kane's interview, the documentary addressed questions concerning nuclear weapons on Kazakhstan's territory after the fall of the Soviet Union. According to the film, some in Kazakhstan at the time thought that it should maintain control of the Soviet nuclear weapons that remained on its territory, declare itself a nuclear-weapon State under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and use the weapons for its own self defence. History has shown that Kazakhstan did not choose this path.

At the time, however, there were also rumours that then-Prime Minister of Libya Muammar al-Gaddafi sought to buy the nuclear weapons that remained on Kazakh land. According to the film, Gaddafi even wrote to then-Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, offering to buy them and take care of their financial and technological maintenance.

Against this backdrop, Ms. Kane's interview entered into the film. Although the interview was filmed in English, it has since been dubbed over in Russian and German. An unofficial translation of her comments is below.

"I don't know about that [Gaddafi's offer]. Such things normally would not be discussed openly with the press. There was the temptation to engage in illicit trafficking of nuclear materials and goods and receive a very high profit. I am happy that President Nazarbayev did not succumb to this temptation."