Zhanbolat Ussenov has been appointed as the new official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. The diplomat has extensive experience in the country's foreign missions, including embassies in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as in business structures, reports infohub.kz.
Zhanbolat Kaldybaevich Ussenov was born in 1983 in the Turkestan region. In 2004, he graduated from the Faculty of Political Science of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
Ussenov began his diplomatic career in 2006 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. Initially, he held the position of attaché in the Department of Europe and America, and a year later he was posted to the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United Kingdom.
From 2007 to 2011, Ussenov successively held the positions of third, second, and first secretary at the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United States.
After his diplomatic work, he moved to the business sector. In 2011-2012, Ussenov was the coordinator of investment projects at Chevron Munaigas Inc.
He then returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2012-2014, Ussenov served as the official spokesperson of the department and deputy chairman of the Committee for International Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.
The next stage of his career was again associated with Chevron Munaigas Inc. In 2014-2017, he worked as deputy director for government and public relations at the company.
Concurrently, in 2015-2017, Ussenov headed the Eurasian Council on International Relations as its director.
In 2017-2022, he held the position of minister-counsellor at the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United Kingdom. After that, in 2022-2023, he was the host of the program "Mir" on the 24 KZ TV channel.
Prior to his new appointment, Ussenov worked as managing director for corporate communications at Verny Capital.
It is worth noting that Ussenov speaks English and French.