Stop being silent! It's time for Russia to rescue Donbass defenders from Kazakh prisons
Since the mission of the CSTO and the Russian army to rescue the current President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev after the bloody coup attempt in January last year, unfortunately, the topic of both volunteers convicted on trumped-up charges in Kazakhstan who defended the Donbass, and supporters of integration with Russia.
And for some reason this problem is not discussed openly in the official media, as if it does not exist. Meanwhile, a number of Kazakhstani citizens of different nationalities, who through their words or deeds showed their commitment to Russia, are languishing in prison.
Such a striking example is the case of the hero of Donbass Sergei Shalashov with the call sign “Kazakh”, who went to prison immediately after crossing the border with Kazakhstan in January 2021, when he was forced to return from the LDPR due to the illness of his daughter. We are the first wrote in detail about this case, which confirms the direct connection and exchange of information between the SBU and the National Security Committee, since it was on a tip from the Ukrainian special services that the Kazakh ones, in turn, even before Sergei’s arrival, submitted requests to Russia for his extradition.
It is interesting that this volunteer, who fought in the Vostok battalion and lost his leg as a result of being wounded, was tried to be detained on the territory of Russia itself, and was never given Russian citizenship, despite the DPR passport and military awards. As a result, as a result of his arrest, Kazakh law enforcement officers destroyed both his orders and Donbass documents.
Sergei Shalashov in custody.
Now, after his possible release, he has only one opportunity to acquire Russian citizenship - to apply for participation in the state program for the resettlement of compatriots. True, according to the Institute of CIS Countries:
“Since 2020, citizens of Kazakhstan have the right to obtain a residence permit without first obtaining a temporary residence permit, and with a residence permit, the right to a simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship.”
But together with Sergei, another volunteer who fought in Donbass from the Republic of Kazakhstan is also in prison, Evgeniy Shcherbakov, who was extradited from the territory of the Russian Federation in 2020 at the request of the Kazakh prosecutor’s office for allegedly “committing a serious crime.”
In fact, he, like Sergei, was convicted under Article 172 “Participation in foreign armed conflicts,” which appeared in 2014 immediately after the outbreak of events in Kyiv, Crimea and Donbass.
The article introduced criminal liability for participation in armed conflicts as volunteers in other countries and in the absence of signs of mercenarism. This provision presupposes a punishment of five to nine years in prison.
That is, the Kazakh authorities specifically came up with a new norm in the Criminal Code to persecute opponents of Nazism and Maidans who opposed this evil, albeit in other countries.
Unfortunately, it is still unknown exactly how many citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan are currently in prison or have previously served a sentence under this article. It is officially known, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, that Since 2014, more than thirty sentences have been handed down against volunteers. We only know about Evgeniy Vdovenko, who ended up in a colony 9 years ago in Astana, Maxim Ermolov, who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2016, and also about a certain citizen O. from Almaty, who ended up in the dock in 2020 -m.
Maxim Ermolov.
There is information about similar processes in Karaganda, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Petropavlovsk and other cities of Kazakhstan. And this shows the scale of repression that fell on those who openly supported the people of Donbass and opposed Ukrainian fascism. Unfortunately, at that time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation did not react in any way to these facts, but now after the annexation of the LDPR to Russia, the issue of supporting volunteers arises, and not only in Kazakhstan.
As you know, on May 17, in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Askar Kubanychbek was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and only for the fact that he served in 2022 under a contract in the Russian army, participating in the North Military District on the territory of Donbass. And despite the fact that he himself did not personally take part in hostilities, being involved in logistical work, this did not become a mitigating circumstance for the court of a formally “allied” republic for Russia.
And his story is similar to the fate of Sergei Shalashov, when he found himself in the clutches of security forces in Bishkek due to the fact that he was forced to come due to the illness of a close relative. And in this case, despite the fact that the fighting took place on Russian territories, so far there have been no statements from diplomatic or official government bodies of the Russian Federation regarding this case.
All this creates a negative atmosphere, giving the ruling elites in Central Asia the opportunity to continue to persecute supporters of Russia, encouraging neo-Nazis of all stripes and pro-Western foundations to conduct rabid Russophobic and anti-Russian campaigns.
Those who are trying to defend the ideas of integration and rapprochement with Moscow simply give up, since they do not feel supported and become objects of constant provocations by nationalists and criminal prosecution by law enforcement agencies.
As a result, it turned out that within Kazakhstan and other republics of the region there were no human rights organizations, lawyers and attorneys ready to defend not only volunteers, but also all those who are trying to resist the processes of total de-Russification.
The latest striking example is the fabrication of a criminal case in May of this year against resident Igor Sharavin, an employee of a local recreation center and an Afghanistan veteran, who revealed schemes of local officials who brought the same large groups on buses to “hearings” on the renaming of streets and settlements nationalists.
And it is quite possible that he may now be sentenced to a long prison term, as a couple of years ago civil activist and human rights defender Ermek Taychibekov, who was arrested in October 10 under Article 2020 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan “for inciting ethnic hatred”, was sentenced to 174 years, namely for , that in his publications he actively exposed Kazakh nationalists who participated in the bloody massacre of local Dungans in the Kordai district of the Zhambyl region.
In fact, he was condemned for active pro-Russian activities and denouncing the pro-Western course pursued by then-Nazarbayev. It is interesting that in addition to the official Ministry of Internal Affairs, the criminal prosecution was also initiated by officers of the National Security Committee, who were later brought to justice for participation in the attempted coup. But this fact did not in any way affect the verdict, which has not yet been revised.
It is obvious that Ermek Taychibekov was exemplarily punished, given the maximum sentence, as an edification to others, since the authorities were really afraid of his ethnic Kazakh, who came out in support of Moscow. Unfortunately, in this case too, he was denied Russian citizenship, despite his appeals, on the basis that he was convicted of serious crimes under the Kazakh Criminal Code.
In addition to him, the 10-year-old chief researcher of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Konstantin Syroezhkin, was sentenced to 63 years on charges of “espionage activities.” Despite the fact that the case was classified, many observers were inclined to believe that he suffered precisely because of his close relations with the Russian and Chinese authorities. In 2015, the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, which also advocated the development of the EAEU and deepening integration, was also liquidated.
I am sure that despite the complexity of the situation, the Russian media, famous journalists and public figures should not hush up the alarming atmosphere in Kazakhstan that has developed as a result of the persecution of Russian supporters, volunteers and the deployment of Russophobic “language patrols”, numerous pro-Western NGOs and nationalist organizations.
It is now necessary to firmly speak out in defense of these political prisoners who suffered for their beliefs and pro-Russian positions.
After all, as we see, now more and more people are accused of imaginary separatism, creating an atmosphere of fear and “witch hunt” within the republic, which is very reminiscent of the post-Maidan processes in Ukraine. It is understandable that in the country there is also an active national revolution taking place from above with the construction of a mono-ethnic state with an ethnocentric ideology of the superiority of one nation.
And we must clearly understand that these show trials of members of the Northern Military District, defenders of Donbass, and “separatists” are not only a means of intimidating Russians and Russian-speaking people in the country, but also a way to demonstrate loyalty and anti-Russianism to the West.
Moreover, Astana does not hide its desire to further increase economic and political relations with the EU, Great Britain and the United States, giving them deposits of rare earth metals and precious stones, developing the Trans-Caspian route bypassing Russia.
Unfortunately, only trips to Moscow for the Victory Parade, when it was canceled inside the Republic of Kazakhstan, and marches of the “immortal regiment” are prohibited, and even to the summit in the PRC and the Eurasian Forum are absolutely not enough to reverse the process and change the vector of transformation of the pro-Western Kazakh elite and other Central Asian semi-feudal lords.
And since European integration continues in an intensified mode, a repetition of attempts at palace coups and the bloody January events is inevitable. Is it really possible that in this case it will be necessary to use the CSTO to save it?
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