Investigation
Lobbyists linked to IradOne chief pitched Irad in Washington, sources say
Late last year, according to people in Washington, a lobbying firm retained by associates of Alikhan Toktarov presented Irad to advisers of the incoming administration as a strategic prize between China and Russia.
From the Irad Times of 18 March 2025.
In the weeks after the US election last November, a Washington lobbying firm retained by business associates of Alikhan Toktarov, chairman of IradOne Media Group, met advisers to the incoming administration and presented Irad as “a strategic prize between China and Russia”, according to two people in Washington familiar with the meetings.
The two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the presentation described Irad's antimony, its gas, Talas Air Base and its position between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, and argued that Washington should “re-engage” with the ISEZ. One said it included a map on which Irad was coloured as “contested”. Neither could say whether Mr. Toktarov knew of the meetings.
The Times has not seen the presentation. Lobbying disclosure filings in Washington list the firm's client as a company registered in Delaware whose owners are not disclosed.
Three months later
The meetings, if they took place as described, came about three months before the remarks in February about selling Irad that brought tens of thousands of Iradis into the streets of Talas and Nurzhan. Our sources did not suggest that the presentation led to the remarks, and the Times does not suggest it.
IradOne Media Group called the report “fiction” and said that Mr. Toktarov “has never retained, paid or instructed any lobbyist in any country”. The Department of Public Information declined to comment.
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