Majlis Podcast: Making Sense Of The Worst Unrest In Kazakhstan's History

January 16, 2022

By Muhammad Tahir
Bruce Pannier

A detail of a public monument in Almaty depicting Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, which was smeared with mud during the recent protests.

The first days of 2022 saw protests in the western part of Kazakhstan over a sharp increase in the price for fuel that spread across the country and evolved into manifestations of anti-government sentiment that became the biggest threat Kazakh authorities have faced since the country became independent in late 1991.

But the peaceful protests were infiltrated and turned violent in some areas, a turn of events that seems connected to a power struggle in the Kazakh government.

President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said foreign-trained "terrorists" were behind the violence and called on the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to send troops to help restore order, and the nearly 30-year-old CSTO did send troops for the first time in its existence.

The official number of people killed in Kazakhstan during the violence was 225 as of January 14. Additionally, more than 4,500 people were injured, and more than 10,000 people were detained.

On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion that looks at how one of Central Asia’s seemingly most stable countries was suddenly torn apart.

This week's guests are: from Washington, the former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, William Courtney; from Kazakhstan’s capital (which is still called Nur-Sultan at the moment), Aliya Tlegenova, a researcher at Paperlab, a Kazakhstan-based policy research center; Darkhan Umirbekov, a senior correspondent with RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, known locally as Radio Azattyq; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

Picketers who protested against Russian troops in Kazakhstan detained and tried in Moscow

2022.01.08 15:44

On January 7, several people protesting the involvement of Russian troops in Kazakhstan were detained in Moscow. Activist Alexander Zimbovsky, who was arrested on January 6, was sentenced to 15 days in jail, according to the Russian human rights resource OVD-Info.

Russian human rights activists say that Arshak Makichyan was detained on January 7 near the monument to Kazakh poet Abai Kunanbayev. He was picketing against the involvement of Russian troops in Kazakhstan.

Later it emerged that not far from the Kazakhstan embassy in Moscow, the police detained two underage girls who wanted to attach to the embassy building posters with inscriptions “Shal, ket! (“Old Man, go away!”) and “CSTO, ket!” (“CSTO, go away!”).

It is also reported that Russian activist Alexander Zimbovsky, who was detained while picketing on January 6, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for allegedly disobeying the police.

belsat.eu

Belarus authorities start detaining

people for comments praising protesters in Kazakhstan

2022.01.07 

On Friday, pro-Lukashenka Telegram channels have reported the detention of a Belarusian citizen who left a comment praising Kazakh protesters on Telegram.

“It’s great, well done Kazakhs, we need them here [in Belarus],” the man wrote.

In the so called repentant video filmed by the Belarusian police, the detainee says that he published a post about the events in Kazakhstan on the Telegram channel listed as ‘extremist’ by the Belarusian authorities. He said that he wanted Kazakhs to come to Belarus and do the same in our country, i.e. exhibit a bright example of protesting.

It is still unknown what the man has been charged with and where he is being kept.

The unrest in Kazakhstan broke out on January 2. Since then, the protesters drew a cut in fuel prices from the authorities (previously, they had been raised twice), then the government stepped down, and finally, the Kazakh people saw the ultimate resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev come true.

On the night of January 6, Armenia’s Prime Minister and Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation decided to send ‘peacekeeping forces’ to Kazakhstan for ‘a limited period of time’ on the back of the appeal of Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. Pro-Lukashenka government confirmed the involvement of the Belarusian troops.

Gulagu.net: Looting in Kazakhstan organized by authorities

2022.01.07 03:51

Citing own sources in the Russian FSB, the Russian Gulagu.net initiative reported that in Kazakhstan security forces used prisoners to discredit the protest and obtain grounds for the entry of Russian troops.

“From the very beginning, the special services of Russia and Kazakhstan planned to implement a hybrid scenario of a soft takeover of Kazakhstan by Russia under the pretext of ‘allied assistance,'” the report said.

According to the report, as soon as “the protest reached a dominant level in relation to the security forces, prisoners from Kazakh jails were involved. They had been released for the purpose of organizing pogroms and looting. At the same time, some of them had already been eliminated by the security forces.

“But they fulfilled their task perfectly: there are a lot of documented facts of looting, there is evidence of attacks on law enforcement agencies, there are facts of brutal reprisals against law enforcement officers, there are corpses with severed heads and video for the archive with the process of severing. This gives the necessary justification for sending in external forces, it demoralizes ordinary protesters, it turns a political protest into a palatable form of pogroms, it shows the security forces that the beast is against them, it blocks the social empathy of undecided Kazakhs to the process of protest,” says the letter published on Gulagu.net.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization recently announced the beginning of a “peacekeeping mission” in Kazakhstan. The military will help the head of state, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to fight the mass protests which began on January 2.

The “peacekeepers” included fighters of Russian airborne troops, as well as soldiers from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

belsat.eu