At the beginning of 2026, a landmark event occurred in the notarial community of Kazakhstan – a new chairman of the Republican Notarial Chamber was elected, a man whose professional life is inextricably linked with the justice authorities and the notary – Oleg POLUMORDVINOV. In an interview with the "Legal Newspaper," he spoke about the priorities that form the basis of the notary's work today.

– Oleg Igorevich, your election took place in a highly competitive environment. Please tell us more about your professional experience and how it formed the basis of your election platform.

– My professional biography is inextricably linked with the justice system and the notary. I have been practicing in Astana since 2002, which has allowed me to study all cycles of a notary office's work – from document flow to interaction with state databases. A significant stage for me was leading the Disciplinary Commission of the RNC for five years. During this time, I was twice elected unanimously by the notarial community to this post, which demonstrates the trust of my colleagues and that I am not an unknown person to notaries in the republic.

Furthermore, I combine practice with scientific and pedagogical activities at Narikbayev University, teaching civil law and notary practice. This allows me to see systemic gaps in legislation and propose solutions based on the law. My program is not a theoretical work but the result of ten years of voluntary public work in the chamber. I came to this post with a clear understanding that the RNC should become a service organization protecting each of the five thousand notaries of Kazakhstan.

– Your program outlines seven fundamental challenges. Describe their content and the risks they pose to the country's legal system.

– Analysis of the state of the notary institution has revealed the following critical points:

• Declining status of the notarial act: In recent years, there has been a tendency to perceive the notary as a technical registrar. This is a dangerous misconception. We intend to legislatively consolidate the status of the notarial act as an instrument of preventive justice with indisputable evidentiary weight.
• Economic imbalance: Tariffs for notarial acts have practically not changed since 2012 (except for new notarial acts), while operating expenses (renting premises, maintaining qualified staff, ensuring cybersecurity) are rising proportionally with inflation.
• Excessive personnel: Over 15 years, the number of notaries has increased 2.5 times (from two to five thousand). The lack of scientifically based quotas, the so-called "free entry into the profession," leads to the entry of persons not ready to carry out notarial activities in the sense of providing qualified legal assistance guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, unfair competition, and the risk of reducing the quality of legal expertise. We will initiate the introduction of limits linked to population density and the number of transactions in the regions.
• Digital transformation: The introduction of technologies must not become an end in itself. Our task is to use IT solutions to minimize errors, not to automate actions requiring the identification of the parties' true will. archival issue: Huge masses of paper documents require colossal storage costs, including 75 years for real estate documents. This is a physical and financial burden on notaries, requiring the transfer of archives to the state.
• Lack of clear mechanisms for notary liability: This creates grounds for subjectivism and broad discretion. In some cases, for similar violations, notaries are held liable in the form of license suspension; in others, for the same violations, they face disciplinary action. The lack of uniformity in enforcement practices leaves notaries unprotected.
• International isolation: We need to give real substance to our membership in the International Union of Notaries, implementing the best global standards.

– You mentioned a significant volume of free services. What is the scale of the social burden on the private notary?

– The official amount of benefits provided by notaries of Kazakhstan in 2025 is 11 billion tenge. We provide services free of charge to 11 categories of citizens (veterans, persons with disabilities, large families, etc.). It is important to understand: unlike the bar association, where state-guaranteed legal aid is paid from the budget, these expenses are not reimbursed to the notary.

The notary independently pays for paper, utilities, assistant's work, and office rent to fulfill the state's social obligation. We will raise the issue of developing a mechanism for direct compensation of these expenses or providing proportional tax benefits. Moreover, notaries, like lawyers, are subjects providing qualified legal assistance. However, the state reimburses lawyers for expenses on providing qualified legal assistance, but not notaries. The social mission should not be carried out at the expense of degrading the material and technical base of notary offices.

– What changes await citizens and notaries regarding digital interaction?

– The transition to UNIS 2.0 (Unified Notarial Information System) is a qualitative leap in security. The introduction of biometric identification (Face ID) for legally significant actions practically eliminates the risks of using forged documents or identity substitution by 100 percent.

We are also scaling the procedure of "equivalence" between electronic and paper documents. This allows a citizen to formalize a document, for example, in Aktau, after which its certified digital copy is instantly transmitted to the database, and another notary in Almaty issues a paper original with the same legal force.

However, I emphasize that in matters of real estate alienation, drafting wills, and inheritance, we maintain the principle of in-person presence. The notary must ensure the person is acting voluntarily, understands the consequences, and is not under the influence of dementia or external pressure. The notary is a guarantor of legality, and digital tools are control instruments.

– The problem of storing paper archives has become critical. What steps is the RNC taking to solve it?

– Every year, notaries in the country perform about 12 million acts. A huge part of these documents must be stored for 75 years. These are citizens' documents, not the notary's. And they constitute a national archive. Today, notarial chambers and private notaries are forced to rent thousands of square meters of space, providing security and fire safety.

We propose legislatively establishing the possibility of transferring long-term archives to state archival institutions or creating specialized centralized archives under the RNC with state funding. A notary should be a lawyer, not a warehouse manager. We are also working on creating a full-fledged digital archive, which will eventually allow us to abandon excessive paper duplication.

– How do you plan to change the system of disciplinary control and the protection of colleagues' professional rights?

– My position is a shift from a punitive model to a protective one. A Legal Center for the Protection of Notaries is being established under the Republican Notarial Chamber. Its goal is to represent colleagues' interests in disputes with fiscal authorities, the Ministry of Justice, and law enforcement agencies.

Regarding disciplinary responsibility, we are introducing the principle of "uniformity of practice." Punishment must be proportionate; you cannot revoke a license for a technical typo or procedural inaccuracy that did not cause harm. We will develop clear regulations that eliminate subjectivism during inspections by territorial chambers. A notary has the right to make a mistake if it is not a malicious violation of the law.

– What are the plans for developing international cooperation and assisting Kazakhstanis abroad?

– We are working on a project to integrate consular workers into the UNIS system. This will allow our citizens abroad to execute standardized powers of attorney and wills with consuls, with immediate registration in the Kazakh database.

Within the International Union of Notaries, we are adopting experience in apostilling and cross-border transactions. The Notary of Kazakhstan must become a recognizable brand guaranteeing transparency for foreign investors. We plan to issue methodological manuals in English and participate in international forums to position our notary as one of the most digitalized and stable in the world.

– What will be the main KPI of your work in three years?

– The result of the program's implementation should be the formation of an economically strong, technologically advanced, and legally protected notarial corporation. We will preserve the Latin model of the notary while ensuring full transparency and convenience for citizens. The notary must become a key link in Kazakhstan's digital legal ecosystem, and his signature an absolute guarantee of the absence of future legal disputes.

Linara SAKTAGANOVA
Astana