April is just around the corner, snow and glaciers are melting in the mountains, and mountain rivers are becoming increasingly full. Including the Koksu River, where a cascade of hydroelectric power stations is currently being built. None of which, however, have started working yet. And while the Koksu River flows along its natural channel, Orda.kz found out who else was involved in the construction of this cascade: 

In general, this publication was supposed to be timed to coincide with the completion of the construction of the first hydroelectric power station on the Koksu — Verkhne-Talaptinskaya River. In any case, during conversations with journalists, representatives of the developer named April 2025 as the completion date. But, as we were told by the regional energy and housing and communal services department of Zhetysu, they know nothing about the completion of construction, much less the launch of the Verkh-Talptinskaya hydroelectric power station. 

In total, as we wrote earlier, it is planned to build a cascade of either seven or 10 power plants on the Koksu River. We have not yet been able to find the exact figure. The department of energy and housing and communal services of the region Zhetysu could not immediately name it. And in general, they suggested that other hydroelectric power stations, except Verkhne-Talaptiskaya, may not appear on the river. Although at least two more — Rudnichnaya-1 and Rudnichnaya-2 — are already under construction. Orda.kz has already written more than once about the scandalous situation around them.

Program, concept, plan

For the first time, potential hydroelectric power stations on the Koksu River are mentioned on the Internet in a document dated 1999! In the «Electric Power Industry Development Program until 2030». On April 9, she turned exactly 26 years old. The program includes the power plants Kyzylbulakskaya, Bodarevskaya, Kyzylkungeyskaya hydroelectric power stations and Toktyshak.

As can be seen from the plans, these power plants were planned to be built before 2020. But in the end, none of them exist.

In another document that we found on the Internet, only the Kyzylbulak hydroelectric power station remained from the 1999 list, but two Rudnichnye ones were added. This is already «the Concept for the development of the fuel and energy complex of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2030», published in 2014 and signed by Karim Masimov, who then served as Prime Minister for the second time.

According to the concept, these three hydroelectric power stations should be built by 2030. As you know, two of them are actually being built by the company «EnergoBildService» — a subsidiary of KAZ Minerals.

And finally, the third document, which talks about the Koksu hydroelectric power station, — this is «the Development Plan for the hydropower industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2020–2030». It was no longer signed by the Prime Minister, then just Deputy Prime Minister, and now First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar and the then Minister of Energy, and now Ambassador to Turkmenistan Nurlan Nogaev.

In this regard — a huge list of power plants on different rivers of Kazakhstan. Including eight for Cox. True, it was not difficult to get confused about how they were registered, because two hydroelectric power stations of Talapty, Kyzylbulak, Kyzylkungey and two simply without a name were indicated there. But not only the deadlines were indicated, but also the specific companies that these hydroelectric power stations were supposed to build. We paid attention to them.

By the way, the construction of hydroelectric power stations in Kazakhstan, including small ones, was part of the regional USAID «Future Energy» program. Also in 2020, the American agency and the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan even issued a joint guide for investors.

Billionaires and deputies

But let’s return to the list of investors from 2020. We immediately excluded from it two companies that we wrote about earlier — these are the above-mentioned «EnergoBildService» and LLP «Bekzat», whose legal successor was LLP «Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP».

Among the new ones, we will start with LLP «Arai Oil», since the least is known about it. This is an Almaty company, which, according to the plan, was supposed to build two hydroelectric power stations with a capacity of 100 and 150 megawatts at Koks and invest almost 200 million tenge in this.

In addition, «Arai Oil» is listed as the executor of a hydroelectric power station on the Tentek River with a capacity of 500 megawatts and a cost of 106 million.

The company has existed since 2004, and from 2009 to 2018 it belonged to three brothers — Nurlan, Erlan and Akhan Abdrakhmanov. Since 2018, only Erlan Abdrakhmanov has been listed as both owner and founder. Unfortunately, we were unable to find information about these people. The name of their company coincides with Zhambyl LLP «Arai Oil», to which «Kazavtozhol» transferred toll roads for management. But this is a pure coincidence — we checked.

But we have a question about the Talapta hydroelectric power station, because there is some confusion with it. In the 2020 plan, its capacity is listed at 150 MW. In 2023 «Arai Oil» published a statement of planned activities, which talks about plans to build a cascade of hydroelectric power stations: Kyzylbulak and two Talapts.

And in October 2024, Eskeldinskaya HPP LLP «published its statement on the planned activities, and also on the construction of the Talaptinskaya HPP. Only now with a capacity of 16.6 MW. How many hydroelectric power stations were ultimately planned to be installed at Koksa in the vicinity of the village of Talapty? We suspect that there is no answer to this question.

By the way, the composition of the founders «of the Eskeldinskaya HPP» is the same as that of the LLP «Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP». And, as we wrote earlier, some of them may be associated with the «Eurasian group».

The next contractor for the construction of hydroelectric power stations in the 2020 plan — is an organization with the loud name LLP «National Energy Company „Zharyk Energo“». In 2020, it was listed as the contractor for the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power stations with a capacity of 37.2 MW with investments of 14.6 million tenge.

What’s strange about this company? At least status «national». National companies such as «KazMunayGas», Air Astana and others have among their founders either the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, or some department, or a fund «Samruk-Kazyna». And LLP «NEK «Zharyk Energo» with «headquarters» in the village of Koksu has a founder and director, 29-year-old Sanzhar Arystanbekuly.

He has headed this company since 2023. What do we know about him? The fact that he still has an individual entrepreneur and that he is listed as a manager at Zhetysu Eco Product LLP.

The latter is owned by 42-year-old Madi Meirbekov. This is a representative of a fairly well-known family in the Zhetysu region. His late father Maralbek Meirbekov headed the health department of the Almaty region for a long time. And her mother, Rimma Salykova, has held a deputy seat in the maslikhat for many years — first in the Almaty region, and after division into two regions — in the Zhetysu region. Also on the website of the regional maslikhat, she is listed as the director of the paint and varnish plant «Almaty Paints». But, according to open sources, it is owned by her second son Saken Meirbekov, and the leader is her daughter-in-law — Leila Meirbekova.

But let’s return to «NEK „Zharyk Energo“». In 2020, the founder «of the national company» was listed as another person — Nurzhan Dzhanabaev. Now he is listed as the owner of an individual entrepreneur and the first manager in two LLPs: a certain Bigcart from the entertainment sector and in «Construction Company ATTM Group», including one specializing in government orders. Judging by the government procurement website, in 2025 alone «ATTM Group» won contracts worth over 1.5 billion tenge. It is also remarkable because over the past four years there have been at least five first leaders. And Dzhanabaev was only one of many.

And finally, two more companies from the 2020 plan. Two because they are connected by one person.

The investor in the construction of the Kyzylbulak hydroelectric power station for 40 MW is listed in the document as a joint venture «KazKorEK». It is indicated in parentheses that his Korean state enterprise KOSEP and the Kazakh corporation «Zhersu» constitute it.

More precisely, the investment and industrial corporation Zhersu. As Forbes magazine wrote in 2021, Zhersu and KOSEP signed a memorandum on the construction of the Kyzylbulak hydroelectric power station back in 2012.

The owner of the Zhersu IPK, at least until 2021, was named billionaire Baurzhan Ospanov — № 66 on the list of the richest people in Kazakhstan in 2024, former vice-president of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In 2016, they even wrote about him that he gave an apartment to the future three-time world champion Nazim Kyzaibay.

In 2023, the same Forbes named Ilyas Zhananov as chairman of the board of IPK Zhersu. He is also listed as the head of LLP «Zhersu Corp» registered in 2024, the founder of which is a certain Zhanar Tolegenova. Zhananov is listed in open data as the founder of five more companies.

And Baurzhan Ospanov, according to his official biography, is listed as the chairman of the supervisory board of IPK Zhersu. He was also called the owner of Zhersu Power and Zhersu Metal, but according to open data, as of April 2025, Baurzhan Ospanov was not listed at all in the founders of the companies with the word Zhersu. The list of companies he officially owns looks like this:

Among them is Koksu Hydro, which, under the name «Koksu Hydro», is also mentioned in the 2020 hydropower plan. She is listed as the contractor for the construction of another Kyzylbulak hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 53 MW.

And, perhaps, it was with her that Koksu Hydro, together with Qamqor Energy LLP, won the auction for renewable energy sources for the construction of a hydroelectric power station. It was conducted in November 2024 by Kazakh electricity market operator JSC «KOREM». In any case, the power of the Koksu Hydro and Qamqor Energy project is the same — 53 MW. But whether this is really the Kyzylbulak hydroelectric power station cannot be said for sure. Because specific projects are not indicated in the auction results. You can only guess if the names of the hydroelectric power station and the auction participant coincide. By the way, observers at the auctions were representatives of KOREM itself, the Ministry of Energy and USAID.

And simply, as a coincidence: the names of archaeological sites — Kyzylbulak-IV and Talapty-I coincide with the names of potential hydroelectric power stations in Talapty and Kyzylbulak. They are mentioned in the monograph by archaeologist Alexander Goryachev «On the structure of settlements of the Late Bronze Age of Zhetysu», published in 2018.

Igor Ulitin (Orda.kz)