Semey Airport
Semei International Airport, formerly New Semei and named after Abai Qunanbaiuly, is an airport in Semei, Kazakhstan, located south-west of the city. It services large airliners. The airfield contains two groups of alert fighter pads. A overrun exists at each end of runway 08/26.
Established in 1929, it is Kazakhstan's oldest international airport.
In 1960, the 356th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO of the Soviet Air Defence Forces arrived at the base from Irkutsk. Equipped with MiG-17s and Yak-25s, it was placed under the 33rd Air Defence Division, 14th Independent Air Defence Army. It was later equipped with both the Tupolev Tu-128 and MiG-31.
Declassified CIA documents indicate that in the late 1960s, during the height of the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet Union used this airfield as a bomber staging base for Chinese targets, and at times the Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder was identified here.