A new wave of anti-Russian hysteria against the construction of a nuclear power plant is rising in Kazakhstan
The Rosatom construction project of a nuclear power plant is becoming a stumbling block and a new ideological weapon in the hands of Kazakh nationalists.
And it all started after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during his address to the people in early September, and then at a session of the Eastern Economic Forum, unexpectedly announced the need for nuclear energy for the country.
“In my message to the people of Kazakhstan, I set the task of comprehensively studying the possibility of creating nuclear energy in Kazakhstan. It is important to take due account of the urgent needs of the state, citizens and business. I myself believe that the time has come to substantively consider this issue, since Kazakhstan needs a nuclear power plant,” Tokayev said at the Eastern Economic Forum 2021, speaking online.
The reaction was not long in coming, and activists of the tame nationalist pan-Turkist party El Tiregi already on September 7 held a procession and then a rally in the center of Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) led by their leader and ex-deputy from Nur Otan Nurzhan Altayev. The same one who, on August 31, threatened physical violence against State Duma deputies and Russian politicians who allegedly intended to interfere in the internal affairs of Kazakhstan.
On this day, the rally, although not coordinated, took place with absolute impunity without any arrests or dispersals. And its main leitmotif was the protest against the construction of a Russian nuclear power plant on Kazakh soil. Allegedly, in this way the country becomes completely dependent on its northern neighbor and this is an attack on sacred “sovereignty.”
It is noteworthy that Presidential Assistant and curator of all nationalists Erlan Karin again appeared in support of posts on social networks in defense of “independence” and preventing the construction of a nuclear power plant. Various kinds of well-fed “public figures” and Nazis of various stripes immediately crawled out of all the cracks on command, creating a corresponding negative background for the joint industrial project.
It turns out that all those who supported and provided information to the “language patrols” suddenly, with the wave of a magic wand from above, switched to this topic. An example would be the nationalist press, subsidized from the budget, and in particular, the scandalous publication down.kz, owned by Elbasy’s middle son-in-law Timur Kulibayev.
This crowd is once again pulling out of the closet the worn-out idea of a “nuclear” referendum, which supposedly should decide the fate of the construction of a nuclear power plant, and also become a triumph of democracy and a “listening state.” Interestingly, the first to speak about a referendum two years ago was the then Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Bozumbayev.
At that time, at a meeting with a carefully selected “public”, he stated that “the comments of various foreign organizations and companies (“Rosatom” - ed.) are nothing more than a desire to sell their products to Kazakhstan in the form of the construction of a nuclear power plant or this is some kind of political, perhaps insinuations.” That’s why a “referendum” is supposedly needed to stop these “innuendos.”
Then, in June 2019, this idea was willingly supported by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev himself, who promised to hold a discussion with the population on this issue.
“The construction of a nuclear power plant is not planned yet. If necessary, we will definitely discuss this issue with the people. If necessary, we will hold a referendum,” said the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
That is, such talk about a “referendum” was initiated by the authorities and became a way to blur the topic of constructing a nuclear power plant, turning it into impracticable, allegedly due to the negative attitude of the local population. In parallel to this, the mobilization of national patriots was carried out under Russophobic and anti-Russian banners.
Now, the current 180-degree turn by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev should be regarded as a special and forced nod towards Moscow after the scandals with “language patrols” and the obvious facts of unfriendly policies pursued by the government inside and outside the republic in the interests of the West. Today it is important for Akorda (the presidential administration) to urgently appear as a friend of Russia, but it seems to me that these are again just words to calm the Kremlin.
This is nothing more than a knight’s move when, after Russophobic actions, a loyal initiative is allegedly put forward to speed up the implementation of an already forgotten nuclear power plant construction project. But at the same time, the court nationalists are again starting a howl, and the wave of anti-Russian sentiments within Kazakh society is spinning up with renewed vigor.
And all the negativity of the popular masses, under the slogan of such a fake referendum, is now focused on the construction of a nuclear power plant, and, accordingly, on its northern neighbor. Behind this it will be easy to hide the further expansion of Western capital, the latest massive privatization of strategic assets, the plunder of natural resources by transnational corporations and environmental disasters. It is also convenient to disguise the topic of the work of the Pentagon’s military biological laboratories, the construction of which was not coordinated with local residents.
At the same time, it is worth recalling that without discussion with the people, the country’s authorities placed a Low-Enriched Uranium Bank (LEU) in Eastern Kazakhstan, built with money from the United States, the EU and Saudi Arabia. Last year, the first batch of dangerous cargo for the population was delivered to Ust-Kamenogorsk for safekeeping, or rather in the interests of Western countries, which financed its construction. This storage facility poses a threat to residents and all living things, as it is located within the regional center and in a seismic zone.
Kazakh diplomats even revealed the potential purpose of creating (BNOU) on the basis of the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMZ): “provided for in case IAEA member states are faced with a cessation of traditional fuel supplies for political reasons.” That is, if the USA, Japan or the EU encounter problems with the delivery of fuel for their nuclear power plants, they can safely take it from this storage facility.
Nursultan Nazarbayev himself volunteered to locate this bank on the territory of Kazakhstan. True, none of the officials who are now announcing the possibility of holding a referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant by Rosatom asked the opinion of the residents of the country and the East Kazakhstan region. Just like no one asked about the consequences of processing highly enriched uranium (HEU) into low-enriched uranium (LEU) at the same UMP at the request of the United States.
It is noteworthy that the waste from this processing was buried right within the city on the territory of the UMP. Naturally, the authorities and the US Embassy did not even respond to the letter from 3000 residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk, who actively opposed the construction of a low-enriched uranium bank in their regional center. The akimat and officials of the Ministry of Energy held “public hearings” only with UMP employees.
At one time editor of the local newspaper Flash! Denis Danilevsky described the reason for the appearance of BNOU within the city as follows:
“As in the case of the project for processing HEU into LEU, the residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk found themselves hostage to the larger global geopolitics. After all, this bank, or simply put, a storage facility, was created precisely so that low-enriched uranium was stored in one place. To make it easier to control, and to prevent LEU from getting into those countries that are either developing nuclear weapons (for example, Iran), or already possess such weapons, but are not included in the so-called. “nuclear club” (for example, North Korea).”
Even earlier, in 2013, the first batch of waste in the form of 18 tons was delivered to UMP, just from that same nuclear power plant in Fukushima. A report published by the US government journal Federal Register noted that the uranium-containing material "was originally obtained by (Japanese corporation) Nuclear fuel industries from nuclear fuel manufacturers in the United States."
All this was arranged with the direct participation of the then US Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Kenneth Fairfax, who had previously visited Ust-Kamenogorsk specifically and inspected the UMP buildings. Then in 2013, in front of the local media, he described all the delights of the nuclear waste repository:
“The benefits of its placement for Ust-Kamenogorsk are, first of all, fame in the world and employment of the local population.”
Now they have really gained fame...
Naturally, the country’s authorities then again kept silent about this batch of waste of 18 tons, then hiding behind the project for the construction of a BNOU with ranting and tales about the leadership’s contribution to strengthening world peace. True, for this “contribution” Kazakhstan will not receive a single cent from the United States, the EU and Saudi Arabia, which have placed this bank of dangerous raw materials on our territory. In 2017, the then Minister of Energy Kanat Bozumbayev directly stated that the presence of this dangerous object would not bring anything to the republic’s budget!
At the same time, you need to understand that this bank is a commercial entity that is aimed at enriching nuclear fuel market players by storing, processing waste and selling uranium mined in Kazakhstan. It turns out that external forces will skim the cream off the activities of this storage facility, leaving all the waste from processing on Kazakh soil. Colonialism in its purest form.
Moreover, now the Pentagon, by agreement with Nur-Sultan, has created a military “training center” in Ust-Kamenogorsk with the participation of American instructors to train specialists supposedly for the protection of nuclear facilities in Kazakhstan. That is, under the cover of this BNOU, the Yankees also opened their new organization, reminiscent of a commando base, which can be quickly deployed during an escalation of the situation. I warned about this back in 2017, when I said that this bank of low-enriched uranium would be used as a pretext for the deployment of American troops.
Among other things, in the event of a deliberate provocation, a BNOU could become a dirty atomic bomb, hitting not only the East Kazakhstan region, but also Russian Altai and the neighboring Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. And naturally, during its construction, none of the court nationalists and officials even mentioned the “referendum”, or the need to discuss the construction of military biological laboratories with the population. This is understandable, because they are American...
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