OREANDA-NEWS Ruslan Shamshiev, Managing Director of the Kazakh company "Operator ROP", committed suicide, reports Informburo.kz with reference to the police. The police opened a criminal case under the article on incitement to suicide.

The RBC source and the Kazakh media (in particular, the portals kz.media and eurasianet) linked the "ROP operator" with Nazarbayev's daughter, Aliya. This morning, the head of the company Medet Kumargaliyev and Vice-Minister of Ecology Akhmetzhan Primkulov were detained in Kazakhstan. Both are suspected of corruption.

Prior to the January events in Kazakhstan, the "ROP Operator" was engaged in recycling collection in the country. However, on January 11, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev criticized the company's work and offered to transfer its functions to state structures. He explained that entrepreneurs and society have "a lot of questions" about the activities of the "ROP Operator". "It got to the point that a kind of public movement was organized against this private company," Tokayev said. At the same time, he noted that during Nazarbayev's presidency, "a group of very profitable companies and a layer of rich people appeared in Kazakhstan, even by international standards." The President pointed out that it was time for them to "pay tribute" to the people, and proposed to create a fund "To the People of Kazakhstan" for regular contributions.

On January 19, the government of the country adopted a document depriving the ROP Operator company of the right to scrap. The assets created at the expense of the disposal fee were transferred to the ownership of the state.