Berlin The authoritarian ruling President of Kazakhstan, who has been harassed by massive unrest, wants to put down all protests with brutal violence. To this end, Kassym-Shomart Tokayev issued an order to shoot in a televised address on Friday. His security forces are now instructed to “shoot sharply without warning”. In the event of further unrest, demonstrators would be “destroyed if they do not give up” as part of an “anti-terrorist operation” to restore order.
The background to this is massive protests in the country that were triggered by the doubling of LPG prices to four cents after the New Year. Tokayev, like the Kremlin, portrays them as terrorist attacks allegedly directed from abroad. Russia and Belarus have sent so-called peacekeepers to Kazakhstan as part of a post-Soviet Council for Mutual Assistance (ODKB).
The Russian commander called his deployed parachutists “war experienced fighters”. According to unconfirmed reports, this involves up to 15,000 soldiers from the ODKB alliance states.
The federal government sharply condemned the politics of Kazakhstan, one of the most important oil supplier countries in Germany: “Anyone who shoots demonstrators without warning in order to kill has left the circle of civilized states,” wrote Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) on Twitter on Friday.
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TV images from Kazakhstan and reports from opposition groups suggest that dozens of demonstrators have now been killed and well over 1,000 people injured. The Interior Ministry said 26 “armed criminals” had been “liquidated” and more than 3,000 had been arrested. At least 18 security guards died in attacks on police stations.
The president has asked Russia for help.
(Photo: imago images / Xinhua)
The brutal crackdown in Kazakhstan continues to strain relations between Russia and the West. Above all, the Kremlin accuses the US of fueling the protests in Kazakhstan. Washington firmly rejects this. On Monday, delegations from both countries are to negotiate a solution to the Ukraine conflict and an easing of the violent East-West conflict in Geneva.
Russia repeatedly accuses the West of sparking so-called “color revolutions” in the successor states of the USSR and of planning this “regime change” in Russia itself. The Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan – which is an ODKB member – are named as examples.
Kazakhstan has long been considered stable
Former minister Muchtar Ablyazov, who fled to Paris, warns of increasing violence: Without the participation of Western powers in resolving the conflict, Kazakhstan would “become Belarus and Russian President Vladimir Putin will systematically implement his program: the restoration of a structure like that of the Soviet Union”.
Kazakhstan has been considered stable since independence 30 years ago. It was ruled with a hard hand by the then Communist Party leader Nursultan Nazarbayev until a good two years ago. In 2019, Nazarbayev retired to the newly created post of Security Council chief and left the presidency to his loyal follower Tokayev.
There were already loud calls for reforms in 2019. Now the protests began after increases in fuel prices and anyway because of rapid inflation and soaring prices. This quickly mixed protest cries directed against the leadership: “Shal ket!” – old men have to go!
Tokayev then dismissed his government and Nazarbayev. He is said to have fled to Dubai in the meantime, where, according to research by an international anti-corruption network (OCCRP), he is said to have expensive real estate according to secret financial documents. According to local entrepreneurs and former government members who have fled abroad, his family has “their fingers in almost all branches of the economy”.
Protesters turn against corruption in the country
Bota Jardemalie, a Kazakh lawyer and human rights activist living in exile in Belgium, says: “His (Nazarbayev’s) family members, his daughters, his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev have a monopoly in all branches of the economy, especially oil and gas.” And everyone knows that “this monopoly is behind the increases in gas prices”.
Most Kazakhs do not hope for real reforms, even under Tokayev: “Tokayev and the government could easily increase salaries and welfare in the hope that this will ease tensions,” says Daniyar Khassenov, a Kazakh political activist who fled to Kiev.
But he adds, disaffected: “But in the end everyone understands that the reforms will not be real. Tokayev is only interested in expanding his power. Whether this will mean an end to the Nazarbayev clan’s monopoly in the economy is completely open. Kazakhstan has many raw materials, so that wealth is possible for everyone, said CDU foreign politician Jürgen Hardt on Deutschlandfunk. Instead, there are a few who have massively enriched themselves – and that has caused the powder keg to explode.
More: Putin interferes in Kazakhstan – and shows his mendacity