In Kazakhstan, the official version of events is bursting at the seams. Nazarbayev is playing back

Temporary stabilization has occurred in Kazakhstan, as troops have been sent to many cities. However, there is still no definitive answer to a number of questions about what happened. In addition, the scandal with the possible participation of the leadership of the National Security Committee (NSC) in the preparation of armed clashes in Almaty is taking on new turns, raising more and more doubts in the official version.

Information about the arrest of Elbasy’s nephew, First Deputy Head of the National Security Committee Samat Abish, was disavowed. Also hanging in the air are previous reports about the arrest of another tribesman of the “leader of the nation” and part-time general of the National Security Committee in Dubai, Kairat Satybaldy.

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It is noteworthy that on Saturday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s Twitter suddenly disappeared from his posts about the participation of 20 thousand foreign terrorists who invaded Almaty from abroad to stage a coup.

Tokayev's deleted tweets.

And nothing is clear about the whereabouts of Nursultan Nazarbayev himself, since speculation has only increased. At first, a number of Kazakh media reported that he and his daughters left the country in an unknown direction, but on Saturday short information appeared on behalf of press secretary Aidos Ukibay that the first president was still in the capital named after him.

However, then Russian political scientist Arkady Dubnov reported in the media that, according to his sources, the “leader of the nation” is resting at his residence on Hainan Island in China and from there he contacts officials and gives them valuable instructions. It is impossible to double-check this, but the fact that Nursultan Nazarbayev has never appeared on TV screens since December 24, since the meetings of the heads of the CIS countries in St. Petersburg, raises many questions.

_{In a most interesting way, the version explaining what happened began to be adjusted. So, now all the blame for the pogroms and bloodshed has been placed on the former head of the National Security Committee, Karim Masimov, who was arrested on January 6 as part of a criminal case for treason. It seems that right now they want to make him the main instigator of the coup attempt in the country, while the KNB generals from among Elbasy’s tribes are being evaded from responsibility and are not even formally dismissed from the authorities.}

This, in my opinion, can only indicate one thing - Nazarbayev, having recovered from the shock, begins to play the situation back, trying to regain part of the power through the bargaining process or to keep people from his family clan at the top of the pyramid. It seems that a scenario has been played out in which the relatives remain above suspicion, and the main “villain” will be a stranger, the former head of the security officers.

Karim Masimov himself was in fact one of the most loyal people around Elbasy, he was twice prime minister, head of the presidential administration, and in 2016 he was appointed to head the National Security Committee. But such a figure alone simply could not carry out such large-scale events without the support of the department and the same nephews appointed as “overseers.”

Nursultan Nazarbayev and Karim Masimov.

But these variations in official assessments of events clearly do not satisfy public opinion and are causing confusion, especially since the press services of law enforcement agencies continue to promote the topic of the presence of a large number of criminals operating in the uniform of law enforcement officers. Thus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reported the following:

“In order to undermine the authority of the authorities, criminals dressed up in the uniforms of police officers and military personnel, committing illegal actions. Therefore, during a counter-terrorist operation, the military, in order not to shoot their own, wear white armbands.”

It is beginning to seem to many that the armed confrontation took place precisely between the security forces, some of whom ultimately turned out to be traitors and rebels. All this can really take place, if we take into account eyewitness accounts of athletic-looking young people with military bearing and some police and military personnel going over to the side of the crowd.

Clashes on the streets of Almaty on January 5.

At the same time, the version about the large Wahhabi trail and numerous mercenaries from the Middle East collapses right before our eyes. Corresponding confirmation of the dead, detained or wounded has not yet been provided to journalists. How weapons, caches and other equipment and machinery prepared in advance were not collected and shown. What is visible is only what was taken from the police and military during the clashes.

In the meantime, only one crime boss, “Wild Arman,” appeared in front of the cameras, who was actually on Independence Square shortly before the sniper shots that provoked the crowd to storm the akimat and the old presidential residence on the morning of January 5. But earlier, back in 2004, he was a tool of the special services in dispersing opposition meetings in Shymkent, and his participation in the provocation was not surprising. However, he alone could not organize the masses and create all this chaos.

Crime boss "Wild Arman".

I was also amused by the case of a jazz performer from neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Vikram Razakhunov, who was beaten by police when he came to Almaty on tour, and who admitted to participating in mass riots. But he clearly does not look like an Arab, and his very presentation as confirmation of the thesis that guest workers from the neighboring mountainous republic immediately took part in the riots immediately caused pickets near the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Bishkek. It turns out that travel across the border was restricted for many months, and the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan reported on Sunday that citizens of this country did not participate in the pogroms in the southern capital of Kazakhstan.

Therefore, much does not stick together in these confused explanations that representatives of Akorda, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delight the media and citizens with. And then on Sunday, many were excited by the news that the CSTO peacekeeping forces were to leave the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan in a matter of days. The duration of the entire mission turns out to be just a week.

“None of the CSTO peacekeepers will remain in Kazakhstan after the completion of the counter-terrorism operation,” said presidential press secretary Berik Uali.

One gets the feeling that the CSTO forces were used during elite showdowns, and when everything calmed down and a new internal collusion occurred after a series of behind-the-scenes bargaining, the peacekeepers were no longer needed. It is possible that now some of the vocal national patriots supported by the ruling elite will now even publicly demand their withdrawal as “occupiers,” and any chance to influence the situation and the general course of the country will ultimately be lost.

In this situation, when, according to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev himself, the events in Almaty were inspired by traitors and conspirators from the National Security Committee, it probably makes sense to immediately and firmly raise the issue of the release of supporter of integration with Russia Ermek Taychibekov, who was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. accusing the same intelligence services that participated in the coup attempt. At least two defenders of Donbass, Evgeniy Shcherbak and Sergei Shalashov, are also imprisoned.

The 10-year-old chief researcher of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Konstantin Syroezhkin, was also sentenced to 63 years on charges of “espionage activities.” In 2015, the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, which also advocated the development of the EAEU and deepening integration, was also liquidated. In the near future, it makes sense to write a separate article about this with a description of how they were imprisoned and persecuted in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

_{If they all continue to sit, and the nationalist leaders and intelligence agents who organized “language patrols” walk free and accuse Russia of “occupation,” then similar events in Almaty may repeat again. So, will we have to send peacekeepers again? A rhetorical question, but if there are no visible political benefits from the presence of the CSTO contingent, then what was the reason to save and pacify the feudal-Bai elite?}