Kazakhstan under Tokayev: Increased pressure on Russian supporters
Kazakh police officers, who fled during the January events, now apparently want to improve their image in front of nationalists at the expense of detentions and persecution of citizens who supported Russia during a special operation in Ukraine. This, in turn, prompted vandals to desecrate monuments to Soviet soldiers, and the government, meanwhile, is looking for other routes for transporting oil and gas, bypassing Russia.
The past week can be called real hysteria, organized by local nationalists and liberals to fan an anti-Russian and Russophobic campaign on social networks in the Kazakh segment of the Internet. The Russian leadership is not only condemned, but there are also constant calls to come out in support of the Kyiv junta, and at the same time, actions of solidarity with Bandera’s supporters were held in Almaty, which no one dispersed.
Regarding the citizens of Kazakhstan who supported the operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, real persecution began, not only on social networks by rabid Nazis, but also by police officers, as well as representatives of local executive authorities. This, by the way, shows that the Russophobic campaign within the country is fully supported by the state.
The first to come under persecution were motorists who placed the letter Z on the windows of their cars.. Local nationalists and liberals began to actively hunt them down and report them to the police demanding their punishment. As a result, several dozen Kazakhstanis were fined, who thus expressed their solidarity with the anti-fascist liberation mission of Russia.
The most striking cases that appeared in the media are known. Thus, on March 2, in Shymkent, employees of the patrol police regiment stopped a driver because he was driving around the city with a Z sign on his glass. As a result, an administrative protocol was drawn up against the owner of the Kia Soul car under Article 590, Part Five, “Violation of the rules for operating vehicles.” According to this article, he was fined five MCI, the city police clarified.
A similar incident took place in Almaty following a tip from activists of nationalist organizations and “language patrols.” As a result, the citizen was identified by police officers using his state numbers and also fined. At the same time, security forces raided his home. That is, it was a demonstrative action to intimidate those who support Russia’s actions and are trying to express their solidarity with it.
Another high-profile incident occurred in Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd), where traffic police officers took the initiative and filmed the moment of arrest of a resident of the capital on video and photos. They forced the citizen to remove the Z sign from the car, and then also filled out an administrative report and then summoned him to court. At the same time, the police themselves actively distributed photos from the arrest on social networks, showing how brave they are.
Another case occurred with a Russian citizen of Kazakhstan, who recorded a video and posted it on social networks, where she pointed out to supporters of Bandera’s supporters that, in fact, there has been a war in the Donbass for eight years, unleashed by the Kyiv junta. As a result, the next day she was called to the police and, under the threat of criminal charges, forced to record a second video of an apology.
Such persecution of Russian supporters was reminiscent of the events of 2014-15, when in the same way all those who collected humanitarian aid for the residents of Donbass were persecuted, fined and threatened with criminal liability. And this was done not only by police officers and local akimat officials, but also by the same current speaker of the Senate, Maulen Ashimbaev, who demanded the institution of criminal cases against accomplices of the “separatists” and initiated the introduction of a new article in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan specifically for volunteers, punishable by 9 years for participation in military operations in other countries without signs of mercenarism.
And history seems to repeat itself. At the same time, in Kazakhstan itself, nationalists, excited by such support from the authorities, organized March 4 new attacks on the memorial complex dedicated to the 28 Panfilov guardsmen in Almaty. Vandals tore out cast iron plaques from memorial monuments in the park of the same name. In addition, unknown persons also removed letters from a granite triptych installed for the 30th anniversary of the Victory in the central part of the park.
At the same time, the police are in no hurry to look for neo-Nazi attackers, but only reported that they were conducting a pre-trial investigation under Article 188 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Theft”. Although the republic’s criminal code contains an article punishing “vandalism,” it is not specifically used in such cases, trying to avoid politicization and trying to present such attacks on memorials to Soviet soldiers as domestic violence and hooliganism.
Although cases of attack and desecration have already taken place in past years in the same park of the 28 Panfilov guards in Almaty, none of the attackers were found, as in Shymkent, Aktyubinsk, Taldykorgan and other cities of Kazakhstan. On the contrary, there are calls from pseudo-historians to rename the Panfilovsky district of the Alma-Ata region, as well as remove the names of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War from their street names against the backdrop of attempts by the state rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators from the Turkestan Legion of the Wehrmacht and Muslim SS units.
At the same time, interesting metamorphoses are taking place in the foreign and domestic policies of the Kazakh leadership. As one would expect during the vote in the UN General Assembly on a resolution proposed by the United States on the situation in Ukraine, Kazakhstan abstained. This is very typical for an “ally” who pursues a “multi-vector policy”, constantly abstaining, including on Russian resolutions.
Pro-government political scientists and bloggers began to justify this move because Kazakhstan supplies its raw materials to the West and cannot quarrel. Thus, Marat Shibutov posted a post in his Telegram channel in support of such a step:
“This is the right decision - we are too closely tied to the global economy to go against it and get a bunch of sanctions, although there is a lot of pressure on us to radicalize), and on the other hand, we are allies with Russia and cannot help but support them. So we chose to abstain, like most EAEU and CSTO countries.”
It turns out that preserving the property and profits of transnational Western corporations, which own two-thirds of the extractive sector, outweighs allied obligations and friendly relations. But that is not all! Following the abstinence within the walls of the UN General Assembly, there were frantic attempts to resume the implementation of new transport routes bypassing Russian territory.
Thus, the Kazakh government began to develop sea routes for the delivery of goods across the Caspian Sea after sanctions were imposed on Russia. Nur-Sultan is already negotiating with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey on this topic, precisely within the framework of those projects that were proposed during the creation of the Organization of Turkic States.
“To strengthen the transit and logistics potential of the country, agreements are being worked out with partners on the direction of cargo along the route “Aktau/Kuryk – Baku – Tbilisi – Kars.” The issue of tariff policy is also being resolved,” said Kairbek Uskenbaev, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan on Saturday, March 5.
These are actually not new, but old proposals, aimed, among other things, at loading Turkish pipelines. They were initiated at one time by Nursultan Nazarbayev, and are now being implemented under the guise and cover of searching for an alternative method of delivering goods after sanctions were imposed on the Russian Federation due to the war in Ukraine.
Further more! The Kazakh news agency KazTAG published information last Friday that the nuclear power plant construction project in the republic may be frozen for several years, and the choice of the company itself may also not be in favor of Rosatom. The publication cites its source, who said that “the issue of choosing a nuclear power plant supplier may be postponed for two to three years.” The interlocutor explained that this was allegedly related to the situation in the country and the world.
In reality, this can mean one thing - under the cover of ongoing events in Ukraine and alleged protests of nationalists and liberals in Kazakhstan, the authorities intend to torpedo the project itself and close it for an indefinite period. In addition, an American or Chinese company can be chosen as a possible company.
And such a signal is already did not go unnoticed in the West, since on Saturday, March 5, a meeting was held between Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Roman Vasilenko and the British Minister of State for Central and South Asia and North Africa, Lord Tariq Ahmad, and the British Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan, Katie Leach. Foggy Albion made it clear to the Kazakh ruling elite that no personal sanctions would be imposed against them.
“The interlocutors also discussed the situation in Ukraine and steps taken at the international level to stop hostilities and return the parties to resolving it peacefully.. The British side confirmed that it does not intend to impose any sanctions against Kazakhstan in connection with Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. As a result of the meetings, complete mutual understanding was confirmed on the entire range of topics discussed and mutual readiness was expressed for further active and comprehensive development of bilateral relations,” the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan reports.
That is, it turns out that London reassured Tokayev after the scandalous statement by English MP Margaret Hedge about the need for sanctions against Kazakhstan, but made a direct hint that continuation of further cooperation is possible only if anti-Russian activity, including within the country, intensifies. Will all the agreements reached in Moscow in February now be disavowed by Akorda?
This is a big question that is now haunting the heads of many analysts, and it clearly goes beyond the framework of the bankrupt prostituted “multi-vector policy”, since questions the allied role of the Kazakh leadership.
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