The situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, which has been badly shaken by riots, remains confusing.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Burned-out government buildings, rusty car skeletons on the streets, black-smeared facades of television stations. The remains of the devastation in many cities of Kazakhstan and especially in the economic metropolis of Almaty are terrifying.
According to state data, which cannot be checked because of the shutdown of the Internet and partially paralyzed cellular networks, 164 people were killed in the protests and over 5,800 people were arrested, including allegedly foreigners.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on state television on Sunday that he had the situation largely under control again. However, the Russian-led troops of the Moscow-dominated military alliance CSTO will continue to act against individual sources of insurrection.
Meanwhile, political observers in Kazakhstan indicate that the real power struggle is continuing. Tokayev is now said to increasingly disempower “Elbasy”, the leader of the nation: Nursultan Nasabaev was president for 29 years before handing over the office to Tokayev in 2019 and becoming head of the National Security Council and thus de facto head of state. On Wednesday, the Tokayev government and Nazarbayev deposed after the protest marches resulting from the doubling of the LPG price to 24 cents, shouting louder and louder “Shawl ket!”
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The 81-year-old Nazarbayev announced on Saturday that he had voluntarily resigned. But at the same time it became known that Tokayev had the domestic intelligence chief Karim Masimov arrested on charges of “high treason” and other high-ranking security forces. Masimov was twice prime minister under Nazarbayev and his close confidante.
Does Tokayev want to expand his power?
Tokayev is now instead of Nazarbayev’s head of the Security Council and will “take advantage of the situation and expand his power,” says the Kazakh political scientist Dosym Satpayev: “Absolute power allows absolutely everything.”
Overview of the German-Kazakh economic relations
Nazarbayev, whose family has amassed billions and taken control of numerous important corporations in the country, had for two years been suspicious of whether Tokayev dared to take action against the hitherto almost all-powerful “leader of the nation”.
The Central Asian Republic supplies ten percent of the crude oil consumed in Germany, is the world’s largest uranium producer and a country in which both Russia and the USA are major investors. Kazakhstan is increasingly becoming the focus of the increasingly heated dispute between Washington and Moscow.
In the run-up to the talks between Russia and the USA on a new security concept for Europe scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov announced that his country would not talk to the Americans about the situation in Kazakhstan.
164 people killed in riots in Kazakhstan
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had etched: “Sometimes it is difficult to get Russians out of the house once they are in.” Russia had sent at least 75 military planes to Kazakhstan as part of its CSTO alliance. Moscow’s State Department verbally hit back: “When there are Americans in the house, it becomes difficult to stay alive and not be raped.”
US companies such as the oil companies Exxon-Mobil and Chevron, the meat processor Tyson Foods and the agricultural company Yalmont Industries have invested 54 billion dollars there since Kazakhstan’s independence. But Russian oil companies are also well represented. Because of the unrest, the leading Kazakh billionaires lost $ 3 billion in market values last week. The crypto currency Bitcoin is also under pressure because of the Internet shutdown in Kazakhstan: Due to the cheap energy, large amounts of Bitcoins have been “mined” there so far. It is not known when these operations will start again.
More: More than 5000 arrests after unrest in Kazakhstan