Children of Old Kazakhstan: How the Sons of Former Almaty Region Akim Batalov Are Trying to Make Money

There are two Batalov clans in Kazakhstan known for their success in business and entrepreneurship. But it is the family of Amandyk Batalov, former Akim of the Almaty Region and a loyal ally of Elbasy, that is most closely associated with “Old Kazakhstan.”

Journalists have written extensively about the real estate and assets of the Batalov, his wife, and his daughter—there is plenty to cover. Much less, however, is known about his sons. 

Orda.kz set out to fill that gap.

The eldest son, Adilbek Batalov, was born on February 14, 1982. He graduated from T. Ryskulov University of Economics in Almaty, continued his studies at Nottingham University Business School, and in 2014 completed a program at the Moscow School of Management “Skolkovo.”

That same year, he headed the Department of External Processing and Oil Marketing at KazMunayGas JSC. In June 2015, he was appointed Deputy General Director of KazTransGas Aimak JSC. For a short time, he and his father were also members of the Kazakhstan Volleyball Federation Council.

After January 2022, many children of “Old Kazakhstan” elites decided to end their careers in state and quasi-state sectors, and Adilbek was among them.

Still, he pursued his own projects.

A Mysterious Land Plot and His Wife’s Yoga Business

The first project is IP Batalov, established in 2023. There is no available information about the company’s tax contributions or its exact line of business. It has not appeared in court cases, nor has it participated in state contracts or procurement.

However, this IP has obtained permits and licenses related to real estate and land in Almaty and the Almaty region — some of which are rather curious.

One notable document was a permit from the Talgar District Akimat allowing a change in the designated purpose of a land plot.

The land plot address is in the Aqmola Region, Yesil District, Mangilik El Street, Building 29/1. 

 

The Almaty Akimat issued him a similar permit for a land plot in the Bostandyq District of Almaty with the same street and building name. The problem: Almaty has no Mangilik El Street at all—let alone Building 29/1.

Then the Qarasay District Land Relations Department issued a document approving a land management project, again citing the same address: Mangilik El, 29/1, this time supposedly in the Qarasay District of Almaty Region.

The question is: what kind of property is this, moving across Kazakhstan from region to region? In at least two of the mentioned regions, the address doesn’t exist at all, only deepening the mystery.

Leaving aside the unexplained, we come to something more concrete.

The Almaty Construction Supervision Department issued Batalov a permit to reconstruct a residential building by adding another floor and extending premises at 318 Zharokov Street, Bostandyq District.

At the same address, he received several more permits, including one removing the building from the residential category for his own use. Today, that building has been converted into a business center housing several travel companies and a yoga studio.

Our correspondent visited the business center. It turned out to be quite active, with two signs visible on the fence—FUN&SUN Kazakhstan and Kaztour Corporate. Assuming they were selling travel packages, the journalist began taking photos, but a security guard quickly appeared, demanded the images be deleted, threatened to call the police, and then ran off to fetch the administrator.

Soon after, the administration clarified that this was an office building, not a sales outlet: no travel packages were being sold there.

In addition to these licenses, Batalov received several other permits — again, all linked to the Almaty region.

Some of them also raise questions because of vague or non-existent addresses listed in the documents. But perhaps the most interesting detail is that the company Happy Yoga Almaty is located in the same building.

It is registered under IP Almaty, owned by Aliya Batalova, Adilbek’s wife. Born on January 26, 1984, she is currently under a travel ban.

Aliya, however, helps shed light on the mysterious address mentioned earlier: it turns out to be in Astana.

 

SNeG

The company was registered on September 9, 2020, and has been operating for nearly five years. It is a small private enterprise with no more than five employees, located in the Almaty region, Talgar district, in the village of Belbulak at 9A Kenen Azirbayev Street.

The founder and current director is Adilbek Batalov, who officially took over management in December 2024. The company’s main line of business is hotel services with restaurants, excluding roadside hotels.

At present, however, the company is absent from its registered address.

Over its existence, the company has undergone several changes in ownership and leadership. At registration in 2020, the founders were Adilbek Batalov and PG SOLUTIONS, with Konstantin Yeliseev listed as director.

In October 2021, the company was re-registered, leaving Batalov as the sole founder. In August 2024, Batyr Srailov was appointed head, but by December, the management was transferred back to Batalov. Some sources suggest Batyr Srailov is closely tied to the Batalovs and often takes over their assets. His name will resurface in our story. 

For now, though, these claims remain unconfirmed.

The company has paid only about 74,000 tenge in taxes, is considered high risk, and has accumulated fines and penalties. It has no declared assets, and its payroll fund has been shrinking every year: in 2021 it stood at nearly 45,000 tenge, halved by 2022, and by 2024 dropped to just 5,600.

We could not find concrete results of the company’s activities, but one coincidence stands out: there once was a hotel complex called S.N.e.G Hotel & Restaurant, part of the Parmigiano Group and among the main assets of businessman Almas Abdygapparov.

That establishment closed in March 2024. Perhaps the name similarity is just a coincidence — but Almas and Adilbek have crossed paths in other projects.

Union of Two Brothers

This project is notable because, at different times, both brothers were involved. Gen Co LTD LLP was founded in 2016 by Nurzhan Utepov. A year later, the younger brother, Islambek Batalov, joined the company, followed by the elder, Adilbek Batalov, who later assumed leadership.

During this period, Batyr Srailov also appeared as a participant. Later, others joined the company, including Kulmazyra Belgozhayeva, Akhmetzhan Kairov, and Gani Bagasharov. In 2023, Askar Sabirov took over management.

The company also changed its address and field of activity, shifting from oil production to cultivating pome and stone fruits. In May 2023, Fresh Fruit Kazakhstan LLP became the sole founder of Gen Co LTD.

Notably, the company was registered at 318 Zharokova Street — the same address mentioned in the first part of our story.

Honorary Diplomats and Shopping Centers

ADK Property Development was registered on May 16, 2016, and has been in operation for more than nine years.

It is a private company with 11–15 employees, located in Almaty’s Bostandyq district at 90/21 Satpayev Street. Its main activity is leasing and managing residential real estate. Most likely, this company owns the Riviera Park shopping center — a fairly large retail hub in Almaty.

The founders are Adilbek Batalov, Murtaza Arifov, and Vagif Khuseinov.

Over time, the company went through several management changes: initially led by Vagif Khuseinov, it was later headed by Anar Kairmekova, Almat Kurmangaziyev, and Nadezhda Proshchenko. Since 2024, management has been in the hands of Alina Mikaelyan.

The ownership structure and authorized capital have also shifted multiple times. In the summer of 2024, the company even briefly changed its name to ME-com Logistics Development, before reverting to ADK Property Development that September.

Interestingly, co-founders Arifov and Khuseinov are not ordinary businessmen. Arifov is the Honorary Consul of Belgium in Kazakhstan, while Khuseinov holds the same role for Estonia. 

Financially, the company has shown impressive growth. From just 258,000 tenge in turnover in 2016, revenues rose to more than 31 million by 2019, and exceeded 79 million by 2023. Income dipped slightly in 2024, but then surged to 170.9 million tenge in 2025.

Barmaglot and All the Rest

The private company Barmaglot Tashkent Ltd. was registered on March 2, 2020, in Astana as a small private enterprise with up to five employees.

From its founding, the director was Konstantin Yeliseev. The founders included Adilbek Batalov, Ilyas Zhangaskin, Aigazy Kussainov, as well as Parmigiano Group Finance — another link between Abdygapparov and Batalov.

Today, the company is officially inactive. Yeliseev once headed SNeG. He later told his story to the project storiesofca.medium — we will briefly retell it.

Konstantin Yeliseev presents himself as a Kazakhstani entrepreneur and often emphasizes his past collaboration with the “Big Four” — the world’s largest audit and consulting firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG). Born in Turkmenistan, he spent a year in the United States on an exchange program in 1994.

He later graduated from the Institute of World Languages in Ashgabat and completed a master’s degree in economics at KIMEP with the support of a USAID grant.

After graduation, Yeliseev built a career in consulting, eventually becoming a partner at an international firm where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions. In 2018, he left the Big Four world and became co-owner of a major restaurant and development holding in Kazakhstan.

Another co-founder, Aigazy Kussainov, was born on September 20, 1983, in Almaty. A graduate of the Kazakh-American University in finance, with a PhD in economics, he speaks Kazakh, Russian, and English. He is married with three children.

His career began in 2005 at the Agency for Regulation of the Regional Financial Center of Almaty. Later, he became vice president of the International Educational Corporation before founding his own project, Verum Group.

Kussainov’s involvement in education is a family affair. His father, Professor Amirlan Kussainov, established both KAU and KazGASA. Other family members remain active in running the institutions.

Beyond business, Aigazy is also a trustee of the Iqanat.kz foundation and an independent board member of the Kazakhstan Chamber of Mines.

Namesakes or Partners?

The story grows more intriguing when we look at the Aq Bulaq sanatorium. Officially created in 2013 as a state-owned facility under the Akim’s office of the Almaty region, it was originally classified as a health resort organization.

Its first director was Damir Surauzhanov, later replaced by Oral Bayadilov. During its early years, the sanatorium underwent multiple restructurings and increased its authorized capital.

In 2019, it was privatized and transferred to Raimbek Industrial and Logistic Management LLP, part of the Raimbek Group. With privatization came new managers: in 2022, Talgat Ilipov took the helm, and by September 2023, the position was handed to none other than Batyr Srailov.

At the beginning, we noted that there are two powerful Kazakh clans sharing the surname Batalov. Srailov, who earlier appeared in the orbit of the ex-akim’s family, suddenly became the head of a company controlled by an entirely different branch — namely, the group of Raimbek Anvarovich Batalov, Chair of the Presidium of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs Atameken.

Importantly, Raimbek Batalov has no family ties to the former akim’s line of Batalovs.

Financial records show the sanatorium’s performance has been volatile.

Revenues peaked modestly in the mid-2010s (7.7 million tenge in 2015, 9.4 million in 2017) before sliding downward: 4.1 million in 2019, 5 million in 2020, 7.5 million in 2021, then dropping to just 845,000 in 2024. In 2025, turnover rose slightly to 1.3 million.

Why the Batalovs use the same business partner is an interesting question.

Under Mom’s Wing

Alym B.Sh. LLP has been operating for more than 20 years. The company was registered in April 2003 in Almaty’s Jetisu district, at 70 Ratushny Street. Its founder and long-time director is Bagda Utegulovna Batalova, who has headed the firm almost continuously since its creation.

In 2023, she briefly handed control to her son Adilbek, but by 2025, the company was once again listed under her leadership.

The firm specializes in real estate rental and management — a typical Batalov family business model, which could range from shopping centers to warehouses rented out to other companies.

Over its lifetime, the company has paid more than 2.6 million tenge in taxes. Yet, its tax history shows sharp fluctuations: just 123,000 in 2015, a spike in 2016, then several years at minimal levels. Since 2021, the company has grown more active, with contributions steadily rising to nearly 488,000 tenge in 2025.

The Youngest Son

Islambek Batalov, born July 26, 1994, is now 31 years old. Educated in Dubai, he has kept a relatively low public profile.

On social media, he lists his wife as Gaini Batalova.

His first major venture was a startup called DaaS, launched in Almaty in 2016. Initially founded by two friends, Islambek later joined, investing around $250,000 of personal funds to create a rapid delivery service.

At its peak, the company employed about 40 couriers, maintained a fleet of scooters and tricycles, and serviced major restaurant chains as well as international companies.

Notably, among its clients was the Raimbek Group — the same network where Batyr Srailov later appeared.

With Islambek’s entry into the business, the company relocated to the familiar address on Zharokov Street, 318. By 2020, however, things were already going poorly — a surprising downturn, given that the year had been the most profitable for courier services.

The company’s largest payout came earlier, in August 2018, when the Yenbekshikazakh District Court heard the case of DaaS Kazakhstan LLP vs. Dinara Zharasova. A few months prior, in June, Zharasova — intoxicated and without a driver’s license — had crashed her Subaru into a parked Lexus 570 owned by the company.

An expert assessment valued the damage at nearly six million tenge. Zharasova admitted guilt and agreed with the calculation, asking only for time to pay compensation. The court ordered her to pay 5,982,340 tenge to DaaS Kazakhstan, along with 179,471 tenge in state duty.

In June 2019, Islambek Batalov registered a new company in Taldykorgan — Tian-Shan Expeditions LLP, which obtained a license to operate as a tour operator. The firm is now officially inactive.

By 2021, Islambek had taken over as head of KICKSTOWN, announcing on social media that he was moving into the footwear business.

A year later, in 2022, he stepped down and handed the role to Aibek Zhanenov.

 Original Author: Artyom Volkov