Eurasianet | 4 September 2025
Kazakhstan wins arbitration case, escapes $34-billion claim
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague has sided with Kazakhstan in a case brought by a Kyrgyz entrepreneur claiming over $34 billion in damages. Instead, the businessman, Yevgeny Belavin, now must pay all of Kazakhstan’s substantial legal fees, as well as court costs.
The court decided to drop the case on September 1. “The Tribunal fully supported the position of [Kazakhstan] and rejected all allegations of unlawful actions brought against the state,” reads a statement issued September 3 by Kazakhstan’s Justice Ministry.
Belavin brought the case before the arbitration tribunal in 2023, claiming his business rights and interests were violated under the terms of a 1997 investment pact between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The key issues at hand included the “extraction of manganese or; construction of buildings; ownership of land and other properties,” according to a summary of the case in a UN database.
The dispute, the UN documentation adds, was rooted in “claims arising out of State authorities’ alleged wrongful criminal investigations into the claimant’s projects and the imprisonment of the claimant, as well as other actions ultimately depriving the claimant of its assets.”
