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KAZAKHSTAN IS REELING from its worst street protests since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The unrest has seen authorities arrest thousands of people and has resulted in dozens of confirmed deaths.
The demonstrations began after the price of propane and butane, which many Kazakhs use to fuel their cars, more than doubled following the removal of state caps.
The protests quickly spread throughout the country as they tapped into wider discontent in the oil-rich Central Asian nation, which was previously seen as one of the most stable ex-Soviet republics.
Within a week Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev authorised his forces to shoot to kill without warning and troops from a Russian-led military alliance had been drafted in to try and quell the turmoil.
The protests began in the western Mangystau region on 2 January over a New Year increase in car fuel prices.
They quickly spread across the country and last Tuesday thousands of people took to the streets of Almaty, the country’s largest city.
That demonstration spiralled into violence and police used tear gas and stun grenades in a bid to quell the crowd.
President Tokayev subsequently held a televised address to the nation where he referred to those involved in the turmoil as “terrorists”, “bandits” and “militants”.
Tokayev has repeatedly returned to this theme in his public statements, blaming the demonstrations on “foreign actors” and “radical islamist groups”.
The government also made some concessions, announcing a 180-day price cap on vehicle fuel and a moratorium on utility rate increases.
The ministerial cabinet resigned and Tokayev replaced Nursultan Nazarbayev, former long-time leader of Kazakhstan, as head of the national security council – a body that advises the president on military and law enforcement policy.
One of the main slogans during the protests, “Old man out”, was a reference to Nazarbayev, who served as president from Kazakhstan’s independence until he resigned in 2019 and anointed Tokayev as his successor.
Nazarbayev had retained substantial power at the helm of Kazakhstan’s national security council.
Despite the concessions, the protests turned extremely violent for several days, with government buildings set ablaze and dozens of people killed.
In Almaty the protesters briefly seized the airport and for several days, sporadic gunfire was reported in the streets.
In a hardline televised address on Friday, Tokayev announced a dramatic escalation of the crackdown, declaring that he had ordered security forces to “shoot to kill without warning”.
“I have given the order to law enforcement and the army to shoot to kill without warning.”
Those who don’t surrender will be eliminated.
Amnesty International described the step as “a recipe for disaster” while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the policy to be scrapped.
Kazakhstan’s information ministry says that 44 people died during the clashes. Yesterday, it retracted a statement stating that more than 164 people had died in the unrest, blaming the publication on a “technical mistake”.
Officials previously said 26 “armed criminals” had been killed and that 16 security officers had died.
The ministry said today that nearly 8,000 people have been detained for questioning. None of the figures have been independently verified.
As the violence escalated last week, Tokayev called on the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) for assistance. The alliance of post-Soviet nations is led by Russia and also features Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Troops began arriving in Kazakhstan on Thursday and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they had been dispatched because the country was facing the “aggression of international terrorism.”
The Russian president added that the deployment sent a signal that leaders would not allow “so-called colour revolution scenarios” to “destabilise” ex-Soviet countries.
Tokayev said the CSTO had dispatched 2,030 troops and 250 pieces of hardware.
Today he declared that his country had defeated an attempted coup d’etat and insisted that the Russian-led troops would go home “soon”.
Putin confirmed they would leave as soon as their mission ended.
As well as being a key ally of Moscow, Kazakhstan sells most of its oil exports to another one of its large neighbours – China.
China was quick to throw its support behind Kazakhstan’s government with President Xi Jinping expressing his condolences to Tokayev over the “large-scale riot”.
The Chinese leader also praised his Kazakh counterpart for having “decisively taken strong measures at critical moments and quickly calming down the situation”.
“As a fraternal neighbour and a long-term strategic partner, China is willing to provide necessary support within its means to Kazakhstan to help it get over this difficult period,” Xi said.
Kazakhstan, which lies right in the middle of Eurasia, is a key component in China’s “Belt and Road” initiative (the sweeping infrastructure project which aims to strengthen China’s global influence) and persistent unrest in the country could hamper Beijing’s plans for closer trade and political links with Europe.
During the crackdown, internet service and mobile phone service were severely disrupted and several airports closed making it difficult to get information about what is happening inside the country.
However, life in Almaty appeared to be returning to normal today, with internet coverage restored as the nation observed a day of mourning for those killed in the clashes.
The government said today that foreign media reports had created “the false impression that the Kazakhstan government has been targeting peaceful protesters”.
“Our security forces have been engaging with violent mobs who were committing brazen acts of terror,” the foreign ministry said in the statement.
As violence escalated in Kazakhstan, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs issued a travel alert advising all citizens currently in the country to avoid mass gatherings and areas of demonstration.
“Citizens should be vigilant when travelling through cities and if possible work from home to minimise movement at this time,” the department added.
It also noted that, as Ireland does not have an embassy presence in Kazakhstan, there are limitations to the consular assistance that can be provided.
With reporting from AFP and Press Association
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No doubt the Yanks are in there somewhere as usual.
@Anton Harris: or possibly closer to home. The country is surrounded by all shades of jihadists..
@Paul Jude Redmond: Who are usually funded by the Yanks.
@Anton Harris: true. USA by proxy..
@Paul Jude Redmond: CSTO can only be evoked if a member country is attacked by an outside country.
In order to justify CTSTO, the Kazakhstani government and Russia had to claim the rioters were foreign, this is why so many influential Russophile social media accounts have suddenly gone ballistic, claiming the rioters US funded/armed terrorists that tried to overthrow the government.
This agrees with the social media posts I read, of people worriedly looking for foreign nationals in Almaty, foreigners are getting rounded up as scapegoats, used to promote this conspiracy. Almaty is the most ethnically diverse city in the country (60% of the City is Kazakh, 25% are Russian, 5% are Uyghur, and dozen of other nationalities).
This claim foreigners are to blame also encompasses the arrest of Karim Massimov, who had a connection with Hunter Biden, this is also an internal power struggle. He was the anointed successor to Tokayev.
I would not want to be a foreigner in Almaty now.
“The country is surrounded by all shades of jihadists.”
There’s absolute zero truth to this claim, the idea that surrounding countries are full of jihadists is ludicrous. Look at a map:
They are bordered by Russia to the north, on the east by China, and on the south by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. None of these countries have jihadists presence except possibly the Uygur minority area of Xinjiang, China, but China has a lid on that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Security_Treaty_Organization
Kazakhstan in highly ethnically diverse, 68% Kazakh and 19% Russian, the rest are Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Uyghurs, Tatars (>1%).
@David Jordan: Lots of good info there, the protests are clearly legitimate, but the elephant in the room is how do fuel price protests lead to 18 police being killed and >700 wounded – decapitated police surely points to something more sinister? There are multiple videos circulating of these being heavily armed protestors, there are questions to be asked about who armed them/trained them? While the US via NED funnels money to regime change operations & has a global military presence, is leaving itself wide opens for accusations that it is behind events like this – which of course could be way off the mark, but there is clearly a motivation for them as they want to shut down BRI routes.
I’m surprised the article does not reference the number of police injuries. You seem to know a lot about whats going on – any theories on how/why the initial protests were so heavily armed/violent and apparently coordinated?
@Kerrill Thornhill: According to the Kazakhstan government, 163 were killed in the riots, 103 in Almaty. Of these, as you correctly point out, 18 were police. So most deaths were rioters and protestors.
I also saw footage of the protests in Almaty, masses of police vehicles and teargas, chaos as thousands of rioters ran around and swarmed police lines. All looked very chaotic and disorganised, one scene was of police vans almost running over riot police hidden by the clouds of tear gas.
I have not seen evidence of beheadings, I’ll check…
There is a post claiming that 3 cops were beheaded, it got 30% up vote, most Kazakhs think is BS. No photo to back it up. It’s from a Kazakhstan government spokeswoman, they don’t trust their government.
Are they terrorists? Some agree with this, but most Kazakhs are getting up votes for saying they are gangs, affiliated with factions vying for power in the ruling elite.
Others are spouting crazy conspiracy theories, one guy got lots of up votes for saying the armed rioters and violence was staged by Russia, to get CSTO. This is, obviously a popular view.
All flavours of conspiracy theories are available to suit your palate.
Personally, I think it was a riot that got out control, and now the dust has settled and damage is visible for all, they can’t stomach the idea that their own citizens are responsible. That their own protest movement gave birth to this. So they blame the Devil rather than themselves, and he takes on the guise of their biases, and like the Reichstag fire in 1933, which saw the suspension of civil liberties and the Nazi increase their hold on power, the Kazakhstan government will not let a good crisis go to waste.
So the government is rounding up outsiders, using foreigners as an excuse to evoke CSTO.
Kazakhs also say the list of 13 demands posted to social media, that included a ban in marrying foreigners and alowing polygamy in some areas of Kazakhstan, was not released by the protestors, they claim it was propaganda from Russia.
This from a Kazakhstan forum:
“Is it true they sent a list of 13 demands including stuff like ban on marrying foreigners and legalised polygamy, or is that Russian twitterganda?” 2 up votes
“It was made up BS” 12 up votes
They need a proper diplomat like Sacha Baron Cohen to sort this out.
The situation is much more complex that it seems. Sean Simpson will soon explain to what extent US was involved :D and Russia had to save the autocratic regime.
Whatever the case, I extend my sympathies to innocent people killed, wounded or arrested (and probably tortured).
There is a strong Russian disinformation campaign going on right now trying to promote the conspiracy that the protests, and especially the violent riots in Almaty, were instigated by the US in a regime change effort. Many of the Twitter accounts promoting this, some with thousands of followers, have a clear track record of promoting pro-Kremlin conspiracies and apologia. The real background and story:
According to Kazakhstanis whose posts I read, the protests stemmed from years of growing resentment over the belief that wealth from the oil and gas rich regions in the country were funnelled away to cities outside the oil/gas producing regions.
Map of major gas fields: https://i.imgur.com/AQvqijU.png
The protests were sparked after President Tokayev removed the price cap on LPG on Jan 1st. This caused fuel prices to double almost overnight, this particularly affected Kazakhstanis who run their cars on LPG, mainly in the west.
The initial protests were mainly peaceful and occurred in a dozen cities, protests were focused on the core demands of reducing fuel prices and an increase in democracy, however, the protests turned suddenly violent in Almaty, in the far south-east of the country.
All Kazakhstanis, who’s socials media posts I read, are appalled at the violence and are very angry that the violence undermined their protests and demands. Most are angry that Russia was called in under the CSTO agreement, so far, it seems Russian peacekeepers are keeping a low profile, trying not to provoke protestors.
There’s also a lot of confusion and rumour about what exactly happened in Almaty, some think the protests were hijacked by a power struggle within the administration itself, others blame foreigners. Influential Pro-Kremlin Twitter accounts blame the US. But no one in Kazakhstan links the protests or riots to the US, though I spotted a few who think China is involved.
Some Kazakhstanis say the rioters were poor and unemployed Kazakhstanis from Almaty, not foreigners, they riot turned violent after they were attacked by security services.
What ever the truth is, I read posts of worried people in surrounding countries searching for friends and relatives in Almaty, seems the authorities are rounding up foreign nationals in that city. Tensions remain high.
Authorities say 164 were killed in riots, 103 in Almaty (18 security services members were killed).
Found this discussion inline that attempted to explain the basis of what is going on:
A: “Let me explain. For 30 years of independence, workers of oil and gas industry worked on Kazakhstani land, specifically Manghystau and Atyrau regions. For 30 years, government in Almaty and Astana transferred the money to the capital and big projects like Expo, giving almost nothing back to workers. Zhanaozen, Atyrau, Aktau. Every city got pennies compared to big cities on the east. When the government raised the prices for gas 2x times, in region, which is the origin of oil and gas, in region, where 90 percent of cars are working on gas… It was the last straw”
Keep in mind that protesters are DIFFERENT from looters.”
B: “So one region was creating the wealth but the wealth was being transferred to the capitol & certain “preferred” areas? That certainly can lead to anger.”
A: “Two, actually! Manghystau and Atyrau. They have the highest salaries. Higher than Astana even. But compare Aktau and Atyrau to Astana and Almaty. Lol.”
B: “Do you see a strong pro-America/Russia sentiment in the protests? Or is that mostly related to outsiders supporting “their team”?”
A: “No! The protest was simple: make gas prices good again, and then they provided five key points to improve, basically bringing more democracy to the country. Then, looters started acting in other regions.”
@David Jordan: I now understand how CSTO was evoked and why the Russian and Kazakhstan government propaganda governments are claiming the riots in Almaty were instigated by the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Security_Treaty_Organization
CSTO can only be evoked if a member country is attacked by a outside country.
In order to justify CTSTO, the Kazakhstani government and Russia had to claim the rioters were foreign, this is why so many influential Russophile social media accounts have suddenly gone into overdrive, claiming the rioters US armed terrorists that tried to overthrow the government.
This agrees with the social media posts I read of people worriedly looking for foreign nationals in Almaty, foreigners are getting rounded up as scapegoats, used to promote this conspiracy. This also includes the arrest of Karim Massimov, who had a connection with Hunter Biden.
I would not want to be a foreigner in Almaty now.
The dictator running the country up to 2018 has robbed the country blind. One of his children arrived in London on a spending spree in 2006 with over 300 million.
Wow . so I have had a comment deleted by the Journal , and it wasn’t even rated as toxic ! It appears that they cannot handle even very mild criticism ; and they like to boast about factchecking . The truth is out there but you will only read parts of it in The Journal .
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