Talk:Bulat Utemuratov

Request Resubmission 2 February 2024

I would like to re-open the 8 November request up to other editors to review. As I mentioned in my comment on 10 January, I would appreciate getting a wider consensus. The suggestions are below and all refer to material removed in this diff: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bulat_Utemuratov&diff=1184173063&oldid=1182729788

Can the following sections be considered for reinstatement for the reasons provided:

1. "Since 2007 Utemuratov has been the President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation. He has invested US$200 million to develop the sport in various ways such as establishing the country's national teams, developing children's tennis, and constructing tennis infrastructure in all major cities of Kazakhstan."

Reason: Utemuratov’s success as President of the KTF is notable for the increase in Kazakhstan's standing on the world stage in this sport. The funding, development, and talent-seeking programs which Utemuratov has overseen have most notably contributed to the successes of Elena Rybakina and Alexander Bublik, and have drawn long-form commentary from media outside of Kazakhstan such as this New York Times feature and the tennis.com feature cited later in this request. It is also arguable that his tenure in this position is one of the reasons he was elected VP of the ITF. It would therefore be sensible to reinstate this text into the Tennis section, either just before or after the sentence on the ITF position.

2. "Since September 2015, Utemuratov has been a board member of the International Tennis Federation."

Reason: This is an elected position which demonstrates Utemuratov’s consistent involvement in the ITF beyond his role as VP. It would make sense to reinclude this either before or after the mention of the ITF in the Tennis section.

3. "In October 2022, Kazakhstan hosted its first ever ATP 500 tournament in Astana."

Reason: This ATP 500 tournament is a reputable professional competition, is the first of its kind in Kazakhstan, and the source refers to it as Utemuratov's "baby" due to his level of involvement. Accordingly, this is both notable and relevant to Utemuratov’s biographical article on Wikipedia, and should be included at an appropriate point in the Tennis section.

Similarly, there is additional independent coverage of this and other ATP tournaments with particular focus on the effect Utemuratov has had in establishing Kazakhstan as a serious contender in professional tennis. I would like to put forward the following additional sentence, for inclusion just before the mention of the 2022 ATP 500 tournament and after the mention of infrastructure investment in point 1.

Text for addition: "During Utemuratov’s presidency of the KTF, the Astana Open was established in 2020, returning in 2021, both as licensed ATP 250 events."

4. "The Foundation's flagship project "Autism. One World for All", provides early intervention programs for autistic children and support for their families."

Reason: At present there is no context for what the Foundation does, which is not very informative. The Autism. One World for All project, as flagship, would be a sensible inclusion to ensure a minimum of understanding.

5. In the See also section, Vyacheslav Kim (and now Almaz Alsenov) is an odd choice, as there is neither a private nor business connection between these individuals. A more appropriate choice might be David Haggerty who is the president of the ITF to Utemuratov's vice-president.

6. I would like to suggest some External links:

• Official website
• Foundation website
• Verny Capital
• Kazakhstan Tennis Foundation

7. Finally, the article subheadings could do with review. A previous Section too long banner suggested considering splitting content, condensing it, or adding subheadings, but the article has changed a lot since 2022. I suggest the following headings:

• (Introduction)
• Early life and education
• Career (either no-subheadings or:)

• Finance and investment
• Tennis

• Charity (no subheadings)
• Personal life
• Awards
• See also
• References
• External Links

References

Many thanks for considering making these restorations and changes. Please let me know if there is anything I can help clarify! Podsought (talk) 17:58, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Closing this request as this has had no engagement at all. I will review what I asked for to see if anything should be pursued further and what should be dropped. Podsought (talk) 17:25, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

Conflict of Interest Request

Hi, I have a conflict of interest with Bulat Utemuratov and would like to suggest 3 quick changes to the article. If you have any questions or thoughts please contact me on my Talk page!

1. In the second paragraph of the Career section, the statement "Subsequent reports suggested that Utemuratov's stake in ATF had been larger than previously known and that he and family members made more than $1 billion from the sale" is inaccurate, and should be removed.

The Bloomberg source provided does not mention any such reports that the size of the stake was different than previously known.

Reason for change: As a Biography of a Living Person, this article should not make claims which aren’t supported by sources.

2. In the fourth paragraph of the Career section, the sentence "This close relationship with Nazarbayev led to Utemuratov being given the nickname "the grey cardinal" in Kazakhstan" is not strictly accurate or supported by the provided Times article.

Could it please be changed to the following, which is supported by the following Reuters article:

"Utemuratov has been unofficially nicknamed "a grey cardinal" due to his connections with Kazakhstan's political and business elite."

Reason for change: This version of the sentence is more accurate and also explicitly stated in the source provided.

3. In the Tennis section, can the following facts be added at the beginning of the paragraph:

"Since 2007 Utemuratov has been the President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation. During Utemuratov’s presidency of the KTF, the Astana Open was established in 2020, returning in 2021, both as licensed ATP 250 events."

Reason for change: This material was previously in the article, and as his involvement in Kazakhstan Tennis is one of the more notable aspects of Utemuratov’s modern career, so I think it should be restored.

References

Many thanks for taking a look at these proposed changes. Podsought (talk) 14:05, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

 Partly done: Implemented some of the sources and information. Others I added "citation needed." Regarding the second tennis sentence, it doesn't read as particularly relevant to the article in my view, as it's about the organization, rather than about Utemuratov. Likeanechointheforest (talk) 01:11, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

Hi Likeanechointheforest! Thank you for taking the time to consider my request and implement parts of it.

Regarding point one, you implemented a "citation needed" tag which I definitely agree with. My concern is this could cause an unsupported instance of original research to persist on the page, and as Wikipedia has no deadline for addressing such tags - and because no suitable source would be found - this could go on for some time.

I would argue that this calls for a bold action and just removing the unsupported wording; would that be something you'd be happy to do? Thanks again for answering Podsought (talk) 16:31, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

I did more research here and agree with you. I can't find any information indicative of that claim. If such information is found, I think it should absolutely be placed onto the page, but for now I am going to remove it. Likeanechointheforest (talk) 17:35, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @Likeanechointheforest, agreed on all points and grateful again for your help in answering this request. Podsought (talk) 09:38, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

September Edit Request

Hi I have a conflict of interest with Bulat Utemuratov and would like to suggest some further quick changes to the article, largely suggesting that headings be changed or material be moved/clarified. Thank you in advance for reviewing and please let me know if you have any questions at all either in the replies or at my Talk page.

1. The sentence currently at the end of the 'Career' section before the Glencore subheading covers events which took place in the nineties: "In 1996 Utemuratov was appointed as ambassador to Switzerland, a position he held for three years."

It would make more sense chronologically if this sentence were moved so it was the second sentence in the 'Career' section, so that it is read before events transpiring in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Reason for change: Chronological order makes more sense to a reader.

2. I suggest removing the 'Freezing of assets' section heading.

Reason for change: It is undue emphasis to have a whole section dedicated to a revoked injunction, and the second paragraph of two in this section is about a different topic.

3. Add wording to provide context for speech paragraph.

Reason for change: The paragraph on Hodge's speech neglects to indicate that the comments were protected by with parliamentary privilege (confirmed in the Forbes source). This is a significant detail because parliamentary privilege legally allows MPs to make comments that do not require proof while protecting against accusations of defamation.

Can wording be added to clarify this protection, i.e. "In March 2022, Dame Margaret Hodge, a British Member of Parliament, named Utemuratov in a speech using parliamentary privilege advocating for sanctions against Kazakh billionaires."

4. Remove the 'See Also' section.

Reason for change: The individuals mentioned have no relation or connection professionally to Utemuratov. No other articles in the Category:Kazakhstani businesspeople have a 'See Also' section linking to other random individuals in this category.

Many thanks for considering these changes. Podsought (talk) 16:11, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

 Partly done: Didn't do 2 because there are other subsections there. They structure the section and it wouldn't make sense to remove them. I also don't see how the parliamentary privilege adds any relevant context to the sentence. Defamation doesn't come up in the article. Likeanechointheforest (talk) 18:45, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

@Likeanechointheforest, once again, I very much appreciate the time you have taken to assess these points. Regarding point 3, I believe the addition of "parliamentary privilege" is relevant because it affects whether the claims made are taken at face value. UK parliamentarians are allowed to make statements which could otherwise be challenged legally. Wikipedia is far more demanding about verifiability on its pages, and it would be easy for a reader to take this section as written if they assume Wikipedia's usual guidelines are in force.

Essentially, the claims presented in this paragraph have implications that cannot be contested, regardless of whether they are accurate. These have been added to the article in the context of the speech so that the citations support the quotes and origin, rather than supporting the content of the claims made. I don't think it would be right to remove the mention of the speech given the coverage cited, but adding in the "parliamentary privilege" note would ensure full context.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the above! Podsought (talk) 12:10, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi, I see your point, but disagree with the necessity here.

The claim in the article is pretty nonspecific: "Utemuratov ... had benefited from ... ties to the Nazarbayev regime," and further reinforced, in greater detail, by this NYT article: "Bulat Utemuratov, whom a British lawyer ... alleged in court was Mr. Ablyazov’s 'money-launderer in chief.'"

There's also this from Source Material: "Opposition parties wrote to the London Stock Exchange, stating: ... 'Utemuratov is widely believed to be holding these assets for the benefit of Nazarbayev.' ... A leaked US diplomatic cable from 2009 noted that Utemuratov had “long been rumoured to be Nazarbayev’s ‘personal financial manager’”, while in another from 2007 he was cited by a source as an example of 'high-level corruption' and 'a billionaire who has never had a business'."

Warsaw Point says: "His activities can be best described as a money laundering operation aimed at benefiting Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former president of the country."

I wonder if you might have ideas about how these sources could be added to the article? Likeanechointheforest (talk) 20:08, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

@Likeanechointheforest, once again I appreciate the prompt reply. I have taken some time to review the sources you have outlined, and here are my thoughts.

• The claims that the NYT makes are already included in the existing article within the "Freezing of assets" section; the article you mention could be added as an additional source on those points, but I think the existing WSJ source and language cover the issue better than the one paragraph in the NYT. The NYT could also be used to cite the lifting of the freeze, the settlement and dropping of the case, as the citation for that sentence is not ideal as it is an affiliated source. As this content is cited and stated factually I hadn't really considered looking to find further content or change wording on these points, but those would be my thoughts, COI notwithstanding.
• There is no current Wikipedia consensus regarding Warsaw Point as a reliable source, but from the tone, circulation figures and formatting it does not look like it meets BLP criteria. I would say that an admin should review the site in general but I would not be comfortable suggesting including it as a source, especially for a BLP, without such an assessment.
• Source Material looks more professional despite being a .org publisher, and they openly declare the sponsor foundations funding their journalism. However the claims made are already in the article in the "Glencore" section with sources which are already considered generally reliable such as The Telegraph, Reuters, and three articles from the Times (I have linked one here). I don't have any particular recommendations for the wording in this section.

In summary I think the existing sources currently suffice and are stronger, though the NYT might be useful as an additional citation on some points.

In my view the speech paragraph would still benefit from having the parliamentary privilege note as it does not have the same reliability status as these other cited claims.

Speaking of reliability, I wonder if you might take a look at the banner on the article, stating that "Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable". Looking at the "References" section I think most of these are gone now, especially now that the "Charity" section has been removed. I have my own thoughts here and will submit a new request.

Finally, I agree with you that the "Charity" section did not really reflect "Charity", more philanthropic foundations/board roles, and the majority of which were not supported by references which meet Wikipedia’s criteria, as above. That said, would it be possible to restore the "Tennis" sub-section but moved to within the "Career" section? It never really fit the charity descriptor in any case, and moving it was on my list for future fixes.

Thanks again, I appreciate the work in helping improve the article. Podsought (talk) 06:40, 27 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi, I think some of what you are suggesting would fit to make the article better! Would you mind please drafting a summary of changes? Likeanechointheforest (talk) 01:09, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi, I think some of what you are suggesting would fit to make the article better! Would you mind please drafting a summary of changes? In this format: Talk:Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media#History update 2. Likeanechointheforest (talk) 01:28, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Likeanechointheforest. Thank you for taking the time to engage with me. I have uploaded a new request in the format which you outlined. If you could take a look when you have a moment, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Podsought (talk) 13:10, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

October Edit Request

Hi @Likeanechointheforest, here are the changes in the format you specified:

1. Could the sub-section in regards to Bulat Utemuratov's involvement with tennis, which was previously in the "Charity" section, be restored within the "Careers" subsection after the last paragraph:

Extended content

− As of 2013, Utemuratov was a key investor of the projects managed by [[Verny Capital]] investment group, together with [[VEON]] he also owned two telecommunications operators –"KarTel" in Kazakhstan and "SkyMobile" in Kyrgyzstan operating under the brand [[Beeline (brand)]]. Verny Capital is a majority shareholder in a gold mining company RG Gold, while 35 percent equity stake belongs to Resource Capital Funds, a US-based private equity fund. Utemuratov is the main shareholder of [[:ru:ForteBank|ForteBank]]; he owns the Burger King franchise in Kazakhstan and has holdings in hotel sector. + As of 2013, Utemuratov was a key investor of the projects managed by [[Verny Capital]] investment group, together with [[VEON]] he also owned two telecommunications operators –"KarTel" in Kazakhstan and "SkyMobile" in Kyrgyzstan operating under the brand [[Beeline (brand)]]. Verny Capital is a majority shareholder in a gold mining company RG Gold, while 35 percent equity stake belongs to Resource Capital Funds, a US-based private equity fund. Utemuratov is the main shareholder of [[:ru:ForteBank|ForteBank]]; he owns the Burger King franchise in Kazakhstan and has holdings in hotel sector. Utemuratov has been the President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation since 2007. In September 2019, Utemuratov was elected as [[International Tennis Federation|ITF]] Vice-President. On 9 July 2022, Elena Rybakina became the first Kazakh to win the Ladies Singles tennis championship at Wimbledon. Rybakina thanked Utemuratov for his role as head of the Kazakh tennis federation in a press conference after her win. Utemuratov has been the President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation since 2007. In September 2019, Utemuratov was elected as ITF Vice-President. On 9 July 2022, Elena Rybakina became the first Kazakh to win the Ladies Singles tennis championship at Wimbledon. Rybakina thanked Utemuratov for his role as head of the Kazakh tennis federation in a press conference after her win. References

Reason for change: Bulat Utemuratov's involvement in both domestic (Kazakhstan) and world tennis is one of the more notable aspects of his modern career and did not properly belong in the Charity section.

2. The speech paragraph in reference to Margaret Hodge would benefit from the addition of the phrase "using parliamentary privilege":

Extended content

− In March 2022, Dame [[Margaret Hodge]], a British Member of Parliament, named Utemuratov in a speech advocating for sanctions against Kazakh billionaires. + In March 2022, Dame [[Margaret Hodge]], a British Member of Parliament, using [[parliamentary privilege]] named Utemuratov in a speech advocating for sanctions against Kazakh billionaires. In March 2022, Dame Margaret Hodge, a British Member of Parliament, using parliamentary privilege named Utemuratov in a speech advocating for sanctions against Kazakh billionaires. References

Reason for change: Adds context regarding the separate verifiability conditions of claims made in such speeches.

3. As discussed above, the is a New York Times source which can be added to the Freezing of assets section to support the existing WSJ reference and replace the affiliated source:

Extended content

− On 1 December 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported about the freezing of Utemuratov's assets including stakes in luxury hotels, cash in bank accounts in half a dozen countries and a Burger King franchise, by a UK civil court on the claim of BTA Bank. According to a statement distributed by Verny Capital on 9 December 2020, the freezing injunction of the English Court in relation to the assets of Bulat Utemuratov had been revoked following a settlement between the two parties. + On 1 December 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported about the freezing of Utemuratov's assets including stakes in luxury hotels, cash in bank accounts in half a dozen countries and a Burger King franchise, by a UK civil court on the claim of BTA Bank. The freezing injunction of the English Court in relation to the assets of Bulat Utemuratov was lifted in December 2020 following a settlement between the two parties. On 1 December 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported about the freezing of Utemuratov's assets including stakes in luxury hotels, cash in bank accounts in half a dozen countries and a Burger King franchise, by a UK civil court on the claim of BTA Bank. The freezing injunction of the English Court in relation to the assets of Bulat Utemuratov was lifted in December 2020 following a settlement between the two parties. References

4. Would it be possible for you to remove the banner regarding the sources which may not be reliable, following the removal of any outstanding subpar citations? The dead/unreliable citations I think need updating are as follows:

Extended content

The unnecessary external link and sec.govreference within the "Career" section in regard to Kassa Nova, as this is a primary source. I suggest replacing with the following Kursiv source. I have also rewritten the sentence for spelling and accuracy: − After the 2009 crisis, Kassa Nova, the first [[microcredit bank]] in Kazakhstan, was established. In 2020 Kassa Nova was acquiered by Freedom Holding Corp for an approximate $ 41 million. + Kassa Nova, formerly owned by Utemuratov, was established in 2009 and was acquired in 2020 by Freedom Holding Corp for an approximate $ 41 million. Kassa Nova, formerly owned by Utemuratov, was established in 2009 and was acquired in 2020 by Freedom Holding Corp for an approximate $ 41 million. References The current source within the "Personal life" section confirming Utemuratov's family members does not meet Wikipedia's reliable source criteria. The sentence could be partly cited using the following Bloomberg article. As this information is accurate I have no problem leaving the sentence as is but indicating that a further source is needed: Utemuratov is married to Utemuratova (Baishuakova) Azhar Abzhamiyevna. He has two sons and a daughter. References Can the deadlink regarding Utemuratov's time on the Security Council be replaced with the archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20220523165009/https://www.akorda.kz/en/executive_office/presidential_councils/security-council Can the deadlink in the Awards section be replaced with the archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20190609125712/http://kazakhstan.news-city.info/docs/sistemsx/dok_iedhfb.htm with the following text, translated from Russian to English, confirming Utemuratov under the list of recipients: Утемуратова Болата Джамитовича - помощника Президента Республики Казахстан.

Thanks again for taking a look! Podsought (talk) 13:16, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

 Partly done: Did all except the addition of the parliamentary privilege! Likeanechointheforest (talk) 22:22, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Likeanechointheforest, once again, thank you for engaging with my request and implementing those changes.

I have one further minor modification to ask of you - when you have a moment, can the plural "Kazakhs businessman" in the lead please be altered to the singular adjective "Kazakh businessman"?

Thank you! Podsought (talk) 15:11, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Done! Likeanechointheforest (talk) 19:08, 12 October 2024 (UTC)