Who provokes the border conflict between Kazakhstan and Russia?
Over the past weekend, the Kazakh segment of the Internet (and especially social networks) was flooded with messages and edited videos about alleged clashes between residents of the village of Koptogay, Kurmangazinsky district, Atyrau (formerly Guryev) region, with Russian border guards, who allegedly intended to “seize” the original Kazakh lands. There were calls from court nationalists to protect the territory from the “aggressor” and come out in support of the villagers, which can be regarded as another provocation.
It turned out that most of the videos that were sent on WhatsApp were fake. There were scenes of an attack by a crowd of guys with placards, chanting certain slogans, on people in military uniform. These images were taken from a riot dispersal exercise by the Kazakh security services. The press service of the National Security Committee (NSC) even sent out a special message, warning that these video frames, which are attributed to the conflict between Kazakh citizens and Russian border guards, are a common fake.
“April 17 this year. Some electronic information resources began sending out videos about supposedly ongoing actions in the Atyrau region. The National Security Committee officially declares that this information is untrue. The video distributed on social networks - from the Kalkan-2021 exercise - was noted in the text of a press release distributed by the press service of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“In this regard, the press service of the National Security Committee urges the editors of domestic media, when reprinting or referring to such materials, to seek confirmation or comments from the National Security Committee, and also calls not to send false information,” the National Security Committee added.
However, there were still gatherings of residents of the village of Koptogay, and they were also broadcast and distributed simultaneously with fake videos about the clashes, giving ignorant and naive users the impression of the veracity of the events taking place. Naturally, nationalists presented this conscious montage as confirmation of the “seizure” of lands by Russia.
What really happened? The problem is that when delimiting the borders eight years ago, a mistake was made and the fence line was drawn approximately 70 meters deep into Russian territory. As representatives of the border service of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan explained, “the metal fences installed in May 2013 between border markers No. 23 and No. 24 extend into the territory of the Russian Federation by 10-70 m.”
Russian border guards, in accordance with the ratified Treaty on the Kazakh-Russian state border, which was signed in Moscow on January 18, 2005, began constructing new fences as part of the ongoing demarcation work. As for the lands of the village of Koptogay, it turned out that the border line had previously been mistakenly moved 1 meters deep into Russian territory.
The construction of new engineering structures and fences caused dissatisfaction on the part of residents, who began to hold meetings because they lost access to the reservoir, which was located behind the new border line outside of Kazakhstan. This gave rise to stories that supposedly communal lands were given or sold to Russia with the aim of provoking unrest.
Here is what akim of the Kurmangazinsky district of the Atyrau region Marat Murziev writes about this: “On April 14 of this year. Border guards began construction work. Some residents of the border village of Koptogay asked for clarification of the situation and expressed dissatisfaction with the work being carried out. On April 13, representatives of the akimat and I held explanatory conversations with residents of the village of Koptogay about the legality of the work being carried out. Border Patrol and law enforcement officials explained their legality.”
It is noteworthy that Russian border guards, in order not to escalate the situation, already on April 17 removed the fences and provided access to the reservoir for villagers and their livestock, meeting the needs of local residents.
It would seem that the controversial issue was settled, since this piece was not of such fundamental importance, but the court Kazakh nationalists tried to take advantage of this situation for their own purposes, presenting everything in the form of a fierce conflict and confrontation.
Fences that were eventually dismantled.
And this very anti-Russian information campaign to escalate the situation with calls for horsemen to come out in order to “stop the aggressor” was painfully reminiscent of the tactics used by pogromists during the massacres and arson of Dungan houses in southern Kazakhstan in February last year. Now, exactly the same approach was applied to the Atyrau region with the aim of organizing a large rally, as well as protests in other cities of the country, but against Russia and Russians.
It’s very interesting how operational footage of the secret NSC exercises to disperse mass unrest “Kalkan-2021” fell into the hands of nationalists and was edited together with real footage of residents’ gatherings? For some reason, employees of the Kazakh special services kept silent about this in their press releases.
At the same time, well-known characters actively appeared in this case, namely Ermek Narymbay, who lives in Kyiv and calls for a “holy war” against Russia, and the status nationalist Mukhtar Taizhan, who sits on the National Council of Public Trust (NCPT) under the president, as well as land commission for resolving controversial issues and legislative reform.
The first, despite his Ukrainian registration, has joined the National Council of Opposition Forces, organized in March by former deputy from the Nur Otan party Nurzhan Altaev. The second, remaining inside Kazakhstan, is trying to lead the nationalist and Russophobic movement.
Taizhan told the Kazakh press the following: “We need to stop the demarcation and return to negotiations with the Russian Federation. The dispute began in Atyrau back in 2016. There is still a land dispute in Atyrau, but the land issue must be resolved from below. It’s no coincidence, I think it’s symbolic.”
It turns out that Mukhtar Taizhan is calling for a revision of the Treaty on the Kazakh-Russian state border of January 18, 2005, which drew a line along the administrative border of the Kazakh SSR. After all, Kazakhstan, under this agreement, secured for itself all those lands that were established by Stalin within the framework of the republic when granting union status in 1936.
Maybe this is how Mukhtar Taizhan wants to capture Orenburg or Omsk? At the same time, this Nazi completely suppresses the fact that Nursultan Nazarbayev transferred the territories that were part of the Kazakh SSR to China from 1996 to 2003. As you know, then the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Kassym-Jomart Tokayev actively helped him in this.
The total area of Kazakh lands transferred by Nazarbayev to China is classified by the government of Kazakhstan. According to official data, between 1997 and 2003 Nazarbayev transferred 407 square kilometers to China. And according to unofficial data, with the Khan Tengri peak, with the Dzhungar Alatau and Lake Kazankol, with the lands of Chagan-Obo and the Dzhungar Pass, with Mount Katu, Kazakhstan gave at least 100 square kilometers to China.
Naturally, the court nationalists have never raised and will never raise this topic, since they live and act according to orders. At the same time, the same Mukhtar Taizhan was actively used by Akorda (the presidential administration) against Russia, starting in 2013, when he led the national environmental movement “Antiheptil” for the closure of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Then activists of this association held endless permitted protests at the Russian embassy in what was then Astana, against the backdrop of a complete ban on holding rallies and strikes in the country. As Elbasy’s late elder son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev previously wrote, for the development of this movement, other nationalist projects and the media in Kazakhstan, Secretary of State Marat Tazhin transferred 500 thousand dollars to Mukhtar Taizhan.
The price of the issue for the ruling elite then was an increase in rent for Baikonur and the creation of a noisy background in anticipation of the signing of the initial draft of the union treaty on the establishment of the EAEU. Then Nazarbayev refused to sign it, citing the flaring Maidan in Kyiv and the danger allegedly posed by numerous domestic nationalists who were allegedly ready to take to the streets.
Therefore, Mukhtar Taizhan performed and continues to perform, on Akorda’s instructions, the important function of a scarecrow and a lightning rod at the same time, which was confirmed last year by the oligarch Margulan Seisembayev. He admitted that he paid for the activities of this nationalist for two years. Thus, in the two years since the land rallies against the transfer of millions of hectares of land into the hands of Chinese companies in 2016, Seisembayev gave Taizhan almost 300 thousand dollars in sponsorship.
Mukhtar Taizhan.
It turns out that in Nur-Sultan they decided to repeat the story with “Antiheptyl” only in a new wrapper of a border conflict, when supposedly aggressive Russian border guards take away water from poor residents of a Kazakh village and “seize” the ancestral Kazakh lands. Isn't this a great opportunity to raise national-patriotic feelings within the country against Russia?
At the same time, there is a diversion from the shameful trial in the same Taraz, where the victims themselves, that is, the Dungans themselves, are declared to be the culprits of the pogrom that occurred a year ago. So, five of them face a term of 15 to 18 years in prison, and the Nazi pogromists get off with a slight fright in the form of a suspended sentence. Against this background, it is easy to hide the environmental disaster in the Caspian Sea in the same Atyrau region, where, as a result of the activities of American and European mining companies, all the fish are dying and shallowing is taking place, and also to silence the topic of the work of the Pentagon’s military biological laboratories.
In general, through this Nazi agency, which perpetrated the information provocation, it becomes clear who in reality is behind all this. It turns out that the intensification of anti-Russian and Russophobic sentiments in Kazakhstan is only intensifying.
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Now the editors are aware.