The problem is the safety culture in ex Soviet countries. If you want the jobs you go and do it, sometimes it makes pilots believe that a diversion not an option or they can cheat the devil.
That day the WX was really bad, RVR 125-250 all day, Severe Icing reported from ground to FL250, we flew in turbo prop and couldn't clear the cloud at FL220, icing was evident on all unprotected areas of the a/c, and the worst was during taxi... I doubt icing was a problem for CRJ, there must be more contributing factors, fuel starvation is not a problem either. Only a suicide maniac will fly to Almaty on empty. Due to the airport location in the dip and proximity to Mountains, airport is below cat1, specially in winter when nearby villages use coal for heating - the smog makes vis drop dramatically, 20km north and its CAVOK.
Looking at AN-72 crash same winter near Chymkent, one old procedure come to mind, they don't change 1013 to QNH or QFE even if they are cleared to altitude below Transition, until they reach the transition altitude often forgetting to reset altimeters... that was a primary cause of AN-72 crash.
Was it the case here, I don't remember what was the QNH on the day, possibly very low, in which case they may have passed their DH and not paid attention to Radalt.
Apologies if I am repeating myself.