The State Department is preparing Ukrainian cookies for Kazakhstan
The US State Department and USAID are committing just over $1,5 million to “strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations and protect rights and freedoms in Kazakhstan.” That is, to support pro-Western NGOs and national liberals, who should intensively copy the Ukrainian Maidan experience. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of the initiatives and actions that Washington is now taking to turn the country in a different geopolitical direction.
As stated by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Relations of the State Department, the United States will actively support precisely those organizations and movements that advocate the development of “freedom of association” in the republic. That is, these Yankees are making it clear to Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) that it is time to open the gates for the free registration of those political parties that will naturally support the pro-Western vector within the country.
“The purpose of the bureau is to promote respect for and strengthen the protection of freedom of association in Kazakhstan and to ensure that the views of Kazakhstan citizens are fully represented in President Tokayev’s “listening state” by strong, diverse and resilient civil society organizations capable of effectively advocating on behalf of citizens for their interests before Kazakh government officials and society as a whole,” the department said.
The President of Kazakhstan himself gave a reason for this when, in 2019, after his election, he announced the construction of a “listening state”, where all conditions would be created for unhindered dialogue between officials and society. Even superficial reforms were carried out in order to convince citizens, and especially the West, of the desire of the ruling elite to liberalize the political system. For this purpose, the puppet National Council of Public Trust (NCPC) was created, where pro-government figures, professional Russophobes and nationalists settled.
Within the framework of this ESOD, bills on parties and rallies were proposed and then adopted by parliament, formally facilitating the procedures for creating new political formations and holding public meetings. In particular, the required number of citizens to form parties was reduced from 40 to 20 thousand people, and rallies allegedly became possible to hold without notification.
But in fact, not a single new political party is registered in Kazakhstan at the moment, and public actions are approved in very rare cases. At the same time, a number of pro-Western organizations that want to obtain legal status have already accumulated in the queue. We are talking primarily about the Democratic Party, initiated by the nationalist Zhanbolat Mamai, who made a film about the “Holodomor” in Kazakhstan, and the famous pro-American liberal Sergei Duvanov.
There are also such associations as “Republic”, “Oyan, Kazakhstan”, “Khak” and others that occupy national liberal positions, as well as the El Tiregi party, led by ex-deputy from the ruling Nur-Otan party Nurzhan Altaev, who 17 March held a meeting of the “National Coordination Council of Opposition Forces” in one of the fashionable hotels in the capital. Prior to this, this newly minted oppositionist established close relations with ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, and now stands with a program of radical liberal reforms in the style of Georgia and Ukraine.
Group photo with Saakashvili.
These are the kinds of parties within the country and preferably in the Mazhilis that Washington wants to see, calling on Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd), through a statement from the State Department, to meet its declared requirements. Therefore, pro-American NGOs, media, human rights and other associations are strengthening, providing them with new grants, and the latest amount from the State Department and USAID is a corresponding and unique demonstration of intentions.
It is possible that Akorda (the presidential administration) will agree to this, especially since all of the listed parties and movements, like the Kazakh nationalists, are connected with the authorities and court oligarchs. Naturally, this will be presented as a huge step in the cause of political reforms and “democratization,” when several such pro-Western parties are registered and allowed to take part in the upcoming elections of district akims.
Actually, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has already taken the first tranche of 1,5 billion euros from the World Bank and the Asian Bank to replenish the budget, and this demarche of the State Department is already a political demand. As they say, debt is worth paying and now the ruling elite, where there are many such pro-Western liberals and cosmopolitans, will begin to carry out the instructions of the Washington Regional Committee with their teeth in their teeth.
President of Kazakhstan Tokayev.
It is noteworthy that $750 thousand of this $1,5 million will be used to “change the curriculum at universities in Kazakhstan and create opportunities for young activists to engage in the protection of public interests.” And this is direct interference in the internal affairs of the country and in the educational process itself, within the framework of which American values will be introduced from the student bench.
The amount is small, but it fully reflects the colonial nature of the Kazakh authorities, who cannot even refuse the assistance provided and will use these funds through the Ministry of Education, seriously developing appropriate programs to promote Western ideology. And this is a transformation from above of the state and social system.
True, some will say that for 1,5 million greens it is impossible to make fundamental changes and create a powerful political base in the form of parties and movements to reorient Kazakhstan. And we agree with this argument, but this is only the top or official part of the enormous funds that have been and are being pumped into Kazakhstan in recent years to support pro-American public figures, NGOs, publications and groups.
Work in this direction has only accelerated under the Biden administration. But in fact, there are additional channels for transferring funding to these organizations. For example, through various types of international funds. They involve schemes related to the use of the resources of Kazakh oligarchs, when our intra-elite player fuels various kinds of organizations within the country, and for this he receives political preferences or, for example, immunity to his offshore accounts.
Such schemes are known, there is nothing new in them. In particular, the same oligarch Margulan Seisembayev is credited, and not without reason, with financing the Democratic Party of Zhanbolat Mamai, the national liberal youth movements “Republic”, “Oyan, Kazakhstan”. There are allegations among the opposition public that Elbasy’s middle son-in-law Timur Kulibayev patronizes and supports Nurzhan Altayev’s El Tiregi party.
This same son-in-law owns a number of odious nationalist resources, for example, the same Abai.kz, which are the mouthpieces of the Russophobic campaign, initiate the collection of signatures for the abolition of the official status of the Russian language and provide a platform for all sorts of poets calling for the construction of concentration camps for Russian-speaking citizens. This growth of organized extreme nationalism is also not accidental and is encouraged from above, which coincides with the attitudes of the United States.
In particular, the Soros Foundation in Kazakhstan prepared a detailed report back in 2015, which recommended “the promotion of Kazakh nationalism as a cultural concept. It is necessary to strengthen the Kazakh identity and revive historical self-awareness with the help of feature films and documentaries, as well as theatrical performances. It is necessary to popularize a huge cultural layer of national self-awareness.” But for some reason this “self-awareness” certainly turns out to be anti-Soviet and anti-Russian.
The report of another American foundation, NED, on grants issued for 2020 indicated data on the allocation of significant funds to a certain Kazakhstan Club of Journalists, created by the authorities, whose branches are open in all regions. And the money was given precisely to pursue a policy of dehumanization and denigration of the common past through the release of appropriate “documentary films.”
“To promote public understanding and discussion of issues of Soviet and modern history of Kazakhstan. The organization will release three documentaries exploring periods of political repression in the history of Kazakhstan in the XNUMXth century. They will screen these films in local theaters and ensure they are widely distributed online. Following the release of the film, the organization will organize online and offline events and discussions to engage the public on issues of past repression and historical memory,” the NED Foundation’s report says.
The same organization allocated a grant for another pro-government publication, Vlast.kz, which, according to the Fergana portal and telegram channel Uzyn Qulaq, belongs to the former head of the country’s presidential administration, and now the chairman of the Mazhilis (lower house) of the Kazakh parliament, Nurlan Nigmatulin.
Thus, $48,267 was allocated to Vlast.kz in order to “increase the availability of high-quality and innovative media content focused on developments in the regions of Kazakhstan. The organization will work with independent journalists and regional media outlets to create a series of collaborative publications and media products that use modern storytelling techniques. These media products will be published on the websites of regional media, as well as on the organization’s own website and associated social media accounts.”
Therefore, a web of pro-Western NGOs and publications that enjoy the tacit support of the authorities has long entangled the whole of Kazakhstan, and nationalism is deliberately being introduced according to Washington’s instructions as a means of decommunization and de-Russification with the aim of separating the country from the EAEU and Russia. Accordingly, we should expect the registration of pseudo-opposition parties and the emergence of new national-liberal projects that will be called upon to create a base of support for such a geopolitical turn to the West.
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