The EU strictly reprimanded the leadership of Kazakhstan. In the raw materials colony of the West, they took the show
On February 12, the European Parliament voted with a majority of votes in favor of the resolution “On the situation with human rights in Kazakhstan,” in which it criticized the country’s authorities for persecuting political activists, journalists and trade unions, and also noted the ban on holding rallies and strikes. True, a dozen similar resolutions have been adopted over the past ten years, but for the first time deputies threatened with personal sanctions, which caused a nervous reaction in Nur-Sultan.
A cause for concern was a statement by MEP Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, a German politician, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, member of the election coordination group that oversees parliamentary election observation activities.
During her speech as part of the discussion on the resolution, Viola von Cramon-Taubadel said the following: “The time has come to hold the Kazakh leadership to account. We have a global human rights sanctions regime. Let's use it." This statement became the main irritating factor and a kind of warning for Akorda.
The reaction was not long in coming and the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Aibek Smadiyarov, stated a few days later that “The text of the resolution distorts the real state of affairs in our country and was initiated by unfriendly politicians, fueled by falsified information from destructive circles.”
However, in addition to sharp attacks against the European Parliament, Kazakh officials began the traditional smoothing out of the problem and placating the Europeans. Thus, already on February 16, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, at a meeting with the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, spoke about the freedom of rallies and meetings in the country, saying that last year the most progressive legislation was adopted in this regard, and citizens can now safely protest at streets.
“Since last year, a fundamentally new law on peaceful assemblies has been in force in Kazakhstan, which established the notification nature of holding rallies instead of the permitting procedure that was in effect previously. In addition, places have been allocated for participants in peaceful assemblies, including protests, in the central parts of large cities. This is a very serious step towards democratization of our society. And we must explain this policy not only in our society, but also abroad. Those who wish to rally are obliged to adhere to the new law,” said the President of Kazakhstan.
In order to please the European deputies, immediately after the resolution the authorities even allowed a rally to be held for the first time on February 28 in the center of the city of Uralsk demanding the release of all political prisoners. And a few days before the adoption of the resolution itself, judicial restrictions were lifted on a number of NGOs receiving grants abroad, which once again shows that the Kazakh authorities do not intend to enter into harsh confrontation with the West.
Meanwhile, many different civil, social and political activists, who believed in the sincerity of the resolution adopted by the European Parliament, began writing collective appeals calling for the inclusion of certain government officials in the lists of personal sanctions, hoping that Brussels would open its own “Magnitsky list” in Kazakhstan. These illusions were fueled by various national-liberal forces both within the country and abroad, creating from the EU the image of some kind of collective good master who will come and judge everyone.
Although, unlike European parliamentarians, officials of the European Commission have never suffered from radicalism towards the leadership of Kazakhstan, well understanding that on the territory of the republic there are many Western companies that earn huge profits precisely thanks to the current enslaving subsoil use contracts for Kazakhstan and agreements on the management of mining enterprises, non-ferrous metallurgy and mining sector.
As of November 1, 2020, there are 22,1 thousand foreign companies operating in the country and 80% of them are companies from the EU countries, the USA and the UK. The thirty largest Western companies provide a third of all tax revenues to the budget, and the mining sector belongs to two-thirds of them. For example, in the joint venture Tengizchevroil, which is developing the largest oil field in the Caspian Sea, Tengiz, the founders are Chevron (USA), which owns 50% of the shares, ExxonMobil (USA), which holds 25% of the shares, and KazMunayGas (Kazakhstan ) owns only 20% of the shares.
In another largest consortium for oil and gas production in the West Kazakhstan region, Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. 29,25% of the consortium's share belongs to Royal Dutch Shell plc (Netherlands, UK), 29,25% to Eni (Italy), 18% to Chevron (USA) and only 10% to the Kazakh company KazMunayGas. The same problems arise in the division of production and in the mechanism for calculating taxes, which are deducted from oil sales actually at the cost price of one-day companies in offshore zones.
That is, with the participation of the ruling elite, Western companies shave off many tens of billions of dollars of net profit from Kazakhstan every year, leaving poisoned reservoirs, steppes and a population dying of oncology and various diseases. In fact, the country is under external control and is a typical raw materials colony, and all games with resolutions are just one of the methods of pressure in order to keep Nur-Sultan on a short leash.
Therefore, the European Union has always used its favorite policy of “oil in exchange for democracy,” turning a blind eye to real repression and persecution, throwing away the next resolutions of its own parliament. This will be the case this time too, because no one will impose any personal sanctions on Kazakh officials, because they are the holders and owners of expensive real estate, hotels, deposits, do not recognize Crimea as Russian and generally provide transnational corporations with the most favorable conditions.
In addition, the government of Kazakhstan took an additional loan of 1,5 billion euros to form a budget from the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development under the political conditions of carrying out structural reforms of the economy and privatization in the interests of Western capital. And so as not to get off the hook if the demands of Washington and Brussels are not met, Nur-Sultan will simply not be paid the next tranche.
Viola von Cramon-Taubadel's warning actually concerned Akorda (the presidential administration) at Khan's headquarters to be aware that there is no need to integrate too deeply into the EAEU, but it is important to follow the framework of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) ) Kazakhstan and the European Union, signed in Astana in 2015 and ratified in 2020.
Therefore, all sides understood each other well and continue to perform demonstration performances. Thus, in order to please Brussels as much as possible, the Kazakh authorities for the first time allowed a feminist march with a rally in the very center of Almaty on March 8, which became, by European standards, an unheard-of triumph of democracy and human freedoms. And in order to once again convince the United States and the EU of their loyalty, on March 17 in the capital, in a luxury hotel, a meeting of the “National Coordination Council of Opposition Forces” was held, led by former member of the parliamentary faction Nur Otan and ex-vice minister Nurzhan Altayev.
More detailed material will need to be given on this national liberal forum, but it is already obvious to everyone that a legal and purely pro-Western “opposition” is now being molded in Akorda, since Nurzhan Altaev and oligarch Maulen Seisembayev intend to carry out reforms in Kazakhstan according to the Ukrainian model and under the ideological leadership of Mikheil Saakashvili.
Let us recall that at the end of last year in Kyiv, with the participation of the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan Darkhan Kaletayev, epoch-making meetings between the former Georgian president and the Kazakh delegation took place, at which the creation of a new liberal “opposition” was blessed.
So now the country will have its own regular feminist marches and its own homegrown successors to the work of Maidan and Mishiko. Therefore, the European Parliament can be completely calm about the fate of Kazakhstan’s democracy.
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