“A slap in the face to Putin personally”: Moscow reacted to the new composition of the government of Kazakhstan
Evgeny Primakov, head of Rossotrudnichestvo, said that his organization, which is part of the Russian Foreign Ministry, refuses to work with newly appointed Minister of Information of Kazakhstan Askar Umarov. Primakov cited as an example several offensive quotes addressed to Russia and Russians belonging to Umarov:
“When everyone gets drunk on vodka and celebrates an incomprehensible victory day, you will remember with prayer our unfortunate grandfathers who did not return from someone else’s war. Who did they win, what did they win?
Don’t forget that you are an imposed diaspora here, not autochthons, and say thank you that your rights are respected and no one is persecuting you as colonialists in other countries.
I am constantly convinced that if a business in Astana has a Russian owner, then the service there is disgusting, as if it had been caught in the dust!! Is there something in their blood?”
Primakov said that Rossotrudnichestvo refuses to work with Umarov.
“I believe that Mr. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is now going through a very difficult time in his work to restore normal life in the country, in which he received invaluable assistance from the CSTO forces, including 3000 Russian military personnel. Apparently, the appointment of Mr. Umarov is an example of the difficult compromises Mr. President has to make. I respect the efforts of Mr. President Tokayev and believe that such compromises will not be able to destroy the centuries-old fraternal friendship between our peoples, especially if Mr. Umarov publicly renounces his Nazi and chauvinistic views on Russians in Kazakhstan.
Respecting the sovereignty of fraternal Kazakhstan and the efforts to establish peace in the republic, I dare to remind you of the old, automatically working and proven rule, which is that Rossotrudnichestvo does not maintain contacts, does not work and does not cooperate with Russophobic rubbish, which completely prevents any of our interaction with the mentioned the minister and the Ministry of Information headed by him in the current configuration,” Primakov concluded.
Russian political scientist Sergei Markov clarifies that Umarov’s appointment was perceived in Moscow as a personal insult to President Vladimir Putin by the Kazakh authorities.
“The appointment of an enemy of Russia as minister cannot even be considered as an internal matter of Kazakhstan. This is a question of relations between countries. I think that if Russia knew that Tokayev would appoint Askar Umarov to a key ideological position, then public opinion in Russia would be categorically against the support of Tokayev by Russian army troops during the crisis. Everyone is shocked and waiting for an explanation.
This appointment in Russia is seen as an open slap in the face of Russia and Vladimir Putin personally,” comments Markov.
Publicist Yegor Kholmogorov agrees with him.
“Tokayev, who has just been saved by Putin from middle-class reprisals, defiantly spits on the savior’s shoe. The scandal with Umarov’s Russophobic statements was very loud. Things then got to the point where Putin was forced to gently scold Kazakhstan for Russophobia and hint to the Kazakh elites that there are still limits to ugliness. And so Tokayev appoints exactly the one who provoked such a reaction. That is, the appointment of such an odious character as a minister of essentially ideology and propaganda is a gesture of disrespect not to the Russians of Kazakhstan, whom the character called second-class citizens, not to the Russians of Russia, from whom the character wanted to demonstratively take away Orenburg. This is a gesture of disrespect towards Putin personally,” says Kholmogorov.
An expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, Kirill Frolov, believes that Kazakhstan cannot allow a repetition of the mistake made in Ukraine during the time of Viktor Yanukovych, when nationalists gained control of the humanitarian sphere.
“We are stepping on the same rake as with Yanukovych, the Russians gained a little in the economic and power bloc, but left information, society and education to the enemy. The problem is that there was no command from Russia to raise the Russian issue in Semirechye in a full voice, to show political will,” Frolov believes.
Journalist Daria Aslamova is outraged that the leadership of Kazakhstan used Russia’s help in difficult times, and is now giving positions to Russophobes and announcing the imminent withdrawal of the CSTO contingent.
“I don’t understand something, guys. So we flew so beautifully to save our brothers in mind in Kazakhstan. The planes took off, the special forces solemnly entered on board. And a few days later we are asked to leave. Like, everything is fine, we figured it out ourselves. What was your name? And what will happen to us for this? Eternal gratitude? Or a good military base, access to the fields where the Americans and British were entrenched, the return of the Russian language and normal education to schools, where children are taught that the Russians are occupiers. What the hell? Russian special forces are call girls, or what? What was that all about?” – comments Aslamova.
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