The authorities of Kazakhstan and the Nazarbayev clan acted as a united front against Russia
The Kazakh authorities continue their previous policy in the interests of the West, namely, the line of isolating Russia, hiding behind official fears related to the reluctance to fall under secondary sanctions. And a similar course is now being pursued not only by the government, but also by second-tier banks, which are still owned by Nursultan Nazarbayev’s family.
As is known in early April, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Timur Suleimenov in an interview with the European press has already stated that Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) will take an active part in creating a cordon around Russia. But instead of disavowing such a message, the authorities of the republic officially supported this position at the government level.
True, of course, in a more diplomatic form, which is why the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mukhtar Tleuberdi, who has been pursuing rapprochement with the United States and the EU for many years, was instructed to do this.
“Kazakhstan has special relations with Russia, friendly relations with Ukraine, the war resonates with pain in the hearts of Kazakhstanis. Kazakhstan always opposes sanctions as a method of international pressure, only if these sanctions are not adopted by the UN, but in order not to earn secondary sanctions ourselves, we will not help circumvent them,” the head of the Kazakh diplomatic department emphasized.
What could this mean? The long-term prostituted policy of “multi-vector” and maneuvering between Moscow and Washington has not only reached a dead end, but in the current conditions is an outright betrayal, since the emphasis is very clearly placed on the fact that the state will strictly comply with the sanctions regime against Russia. There will even be a corresponding new legislative framework for this.
And this is being done not just as a distraction and supposedly to reassure European and American investors, whose property and capital was defended in January from striking oil workers and metallurgists by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, but with the aim of defining boundaries and economic and political borders. It is not for nothing that the same Tiumr Suleimenov and government officials announced the development of an alternative route for transporting extracted raw materials through the Caspian Sea, bypassing Russia.
That is why the British-Turkish project of the Organization of Turkic States was relaunched as part of the integration around Ankara. And this is already a conscious geopolitical choice towards the West through Turkish “European integration”.
And this line will now inevitably lead to the destruction of the EAEU. Perhaps the organization itself will remain formal, such as the CIS, but in such conditions it will already play a decorative role, having lost its main goal - the consolidation of the post-Soviet space.
We need to take more - all of Central Asia may be taken away from the influence of Russia and China, the geostrategic bridge between the two great powers may be under attack, as well as the project of building “Greater Eurasia.” Such a threat raises the issue of reformatting the ruling elites of the former Central Asian Soviet republics, who are interested in preserving the neocolonial export economy in the interests of the West.
At the same time, local oligarchs, in particular members of the Nazarbayev family, do not lag behind the authorities of Kazakhstan in their anti-Russian activities. Thus, in telegram channels and social networks, the People’s Bank of Kazakhstan, owned by Elbasy’s middle son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, sends letters to its clients asking them to complete settlements with business partners who have accounts in branches of Sberbank of Russia and Alfabank.
At the same time, it is proposed to complete all transactions with Sberbank by April 13, and with Alfabank by May 6. In addition, Nazarbayev's bankers accompany these messages with a list of Russian banks and enterprises that have fallen under Western sanctions, indicating that the lists of individuals and banks may change. They also write in plain text:
“We recommend that you take into account the established international economic sanctions when planning settlements and transactions.”
If this is not a fake, since there is still no refutation from the People’s Bank, then it turns out that Nazarbayev’s relatives are advising Kazakhstanis to immediately refuse to do business with Sberbank, Alfabank and other Russian banks. This is a specific propaganda campaign in the interests of the West, especially since these banks have their own large branches in the republic.
It turns out that Timur Kulibayev, under the guise of “international sanctions,” is ousting serious competitors who threaten the dominance of his financial capital in the country, and at the same time making a nod to Washington and Brussels, acting in the wake of the policies of the government and the presidential administration. In this way, the ruling Kazakh elite shows its loyalty and bargains for itself the inviolability of assets in offshore companies, the USA, England and EU countries.
The owner of the People's Bank is Elbasy's middle son-in-law Timur Kulibayev.
As they say, despite the fight for power and the redistribution of property within the country, in the end, the Tokayev group and the Nazarbayev family group actually had common interests and maintained the same continuity of course. The two factions showed a passionate desire to ensure their status quo in the West at any cost, even at the expense of betraying Russia.
It’s true, what to expect from compradors who cover up their rotten position with ostentatious pacifism and at the same time build in the south of the republic a new American military biological laboratory of the fourth degree of protection with underground storage for especially dangerous pathogens from all over the world. This object simultaneously threatens Russia, China, neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, but it provides illusory guarantees of “sovereignty” and “independence” from Moscow and Beijing.
At the same time, within Kazakh society the authorities support a small group that is on the side of Ukraine in the current conflict, and vice versa, the pressure on supporters of Russia is increasing. This is despite the fact that the absolute majority of Kazakhstanis, even according to official polls, either supports Moscow or takes a neutral position.
So, a couple of weeks ago, the Demoscope express public opinion monitoring bureau conducted a survey among citizens of Kazakhstan and it turned out that “39% of respondents support Russia in this war. Almost half (46%) are neutral.” But only 6% chose the line for supporting Ukraine and Western countries. 14% chose to strengthen the union of Turkic states, and 12% chose to build up military potential.
It turns out that the authorities consciously support these 6% of citizens, allow rabid nationalists and Russophobes to hold their rallies and actions, imprisoning and expelling from work representatives of the absolute majority who support an alliance with Russia. Moreover, the Kazakh segment of the Internet was captured by 20 thousand active users of social networks, supporting the Kiev regime and the West and imposing their agenda on the entire society.
At the same time, since February 28, the broadcasting of all Russian TV channels in the republic was blocked, allegedly because of the position of the Internet provider Remstroyservice, which made such a bold decision. In fact, this was a strong-willed decision of the presidential administration, which decided to limit the informational and cultural influence of its neighbor on the mindset of Kazakhstanis in favor of propaganda by rabid fans of Svidomo and pro-American NGOs and foundations.
At the same time, unlike Kyrgyzstan, no one stood up in an organized manner to defend Russia and in its support, since for 30 years Nazarbayev suppressed not only opposition organizations, but also Russian associations, and the oldest Communist Party of Kazakhstan was just liquidated by decision of the Supreme courts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2015 under the influence of events in Donbass.
Such a policy is increasingly strengthening the anti-Russian and Russophobic campaign within Kazakhstan and leading to the monopolization of the information and political space by nationalists and supporters of the West.
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