The sanctioned daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary might have registered for a particular person identification quantity (IIN) in Kazakhstan, the Current Time investigative project “System” reported this week, citing a web based database operated by Kazakhstan’s Nationwide Certification Middle.
Based on the report, somebody with the identical full title and beginning date of Elizaveta Peskova – the 26-year-old daughter of Dmitry Peskov – seems to have registered for an IIN. If she did, she would have achieved so earlier than September 2022, because the quantity was assigned to the state income division of Nur-Sultan. The capital of Kazakhstan bore the title Nur-Sultan for a bit over two years, from March 2019 to September 2022.
An IIN in Kazakhstan is important to entry authorities and banking companies.
After the September 2022 “partial mobilization,” 1000’s of Russians crossed the border into Kazakhstan. Within the first week alone, an estimated 98,000 Russian citizens entered Kazakhstan. The following month, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Digital Improvement Asset Turysov mentioned that the federal government had obtained round 200,000 purposes for IINs from foreigners because the mobilization. He didn’t specify the proportion that have been Russians. Russians additionally utilized for IINs within the months earlier than the mobilization, although at arguably decrease charges and with far much less media protection of the actual fact.
As a Kazakh researcher defined in a November 2022 article for The Diplomat: “Acquiring an IIN is likely one of the first issues resettling Russians do, because the quantity is important for employment in Kazakhstan, in addition to for organising a cellphone quantity and a checking account within the nation.”
It might even be helpful for bypassing sanctions. Opening a neighborhood checking account in Kazakhstan would assist a Russian keep away from restrictions imposed by Visa and Mastercard.
In reviewing the vulnerability of Kazakhstan to secondary sanctions in June 2023, Sophia Nina Burna-Asefi famous that regardless of the federal government’s strident attestations that it didn’t and wouldn’t help Russia in circumventing sanctions or permit the resale of dual-use items by its territory, there have been a number of administrative loopholes. One in every of them was the IIN registration system.
“A working example is that Kazakh banks continue to subject Kazakh particular person identification numbers (IIN) to Russian nationals with out them really needing to be within the nation in particular person,” Burna-Asefi wrote. “This IIN offers its holder the chance to do enterprise and have interaction in commerce within the nation.”
In November 2023, the Kazakh Ministry of Inner Affairs proposed banning foreigners from utilizing e-government portals to file purposes for IIN, as an alternative forcing them to use in particular person. The rule change was approved in late February 2024 and went into effect as of March 25.
Whereas the change doesn’t essentially deal with the difficulty of IINs already registered to individuals who many not bodily be in Kazakhstan however are utilizing the Kazakh banking system, it does shut one loophole.
Present Time famous in its report, “It’s unknown whether or not Peskova managed to benefit from this loophole.”
Having an IIN is one matter; utilizing it to entry companies is one other. And Peskova isn’t an unknown particular person.
Peskova was sanctioned by the US in March 2022, shortly after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A U.S. Treasury Department press release counted her among the many “Russian and Kremlin elites, oligarchs, and Russia’s political and nationwide safety leaders who’ve supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal and unlawful invasion of Ukraine.”
Dmitriy Peskov has served because the Kremlin’s press secretary since 2012 and was among the many first spherical of sanctioned officers in early March 2022. Within the subsequent batch, his spouse, and two grownup youngsters – Nikolay and Elizaveta – have been sanctioned. Concerning Elizaveta, the discharge said: “Liza has tens of 1000’s of followers on social media, the place she shows her luxurious way of life. She beforehand interned for a member of the European Parliament who publicly supported Russia’s tried annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea area.”
In an interview with Business Insider after her designation, she known as the sanctions “completely unfair and unfounded.” Peskova is reported to carry a 30 % stake in a Moscow-based promoting company whose purchasers embrace varied authorities businesses.
Whether or not Peskova has used the Kazakh banking system isn’t clear from current reporting, however the discovery of an IIN that seems to be tied to her title suggests it’s a risk.
