From the BBC:
“Kazakhstan unrest: Government
calls for Russian help”
(Police firing on Protesters on
January 5, 2022)
Russian-led military troops will
be deployed to help quell anti-government demonstrations in Kazakhstan.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for support from the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) amid escalating nationwide unrest. The protests were
first sparked by rising fuel prices, but have broadened to include other
political grievances. President Tokayev claimed the unrest was the work of
foreign-trained "terrorist gangs".
However, Kate Mallinson, an
expert on Central Asia at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House in
London, said the protests are "symptomatic of very deep-seated and
simmering anger and resentment at the failure of the Kazhak government to
modernise their country and introduce reforms that impact people at all
levels". The president has imposed a nationwide state of emergency that
includes an overnight curfew and a ban on mass gatherings and has vowed a tough
response to the protests. In a televised speech in the early hours of Thursday,
he said he had sought help from the CSTO - a military alliance made up of
Russia and five ex-Soviet states to help stabilise the country. Later on
Wednesday the CSTO's chairman, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,
confirmed in a statement on Facebook that the alliance would send peacekeeping
forces "for a limited period of time". The US State Department said
it is "closely following" the situation in Kazakhstan, with a
spokesman urging restraint by authorities and protesters alike.
President Tokayev is only the
second person to lead Kazakhstan since it declared independence in 1991. His
election, in 2019, was condemned by the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE) as showing scant respect for democratic standards. Much of the
anger on the streets, however, seems to have been aimed at his predecessor,
Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has held a powerful national security role since
stepping down. On Wednesday, he was fired in a bid to subdue the growing
unrest. Protesters had been heard chanting Mr Nazarbayev's name, while a video
showing people attempting to pull down a giant bronze statue of the former
leader has been shared online. According to BBC Monitoring, the now-dismantled
monument appears to have stood in Taldykorgan, Mr Nazarbayev's home region.
Staff at Kazakhstan's main airport had to flee anti-government demonstrators,
who have also targeted government buildings. Protesters gathered at the mayor's
office in Almaty before eventually storming it. Videos on social media showed a
plume of smoke rising from the building, while gunfire could also be heard. The
city's police chief, Kanat Taimerdenov, said "extremists and radicals"
had attacked 500 civilians and ransacked hundreds of businesses. Water cannon
were used against protesters in the western city of Aktobe. There are reports
that security forces have sided with protesters in some places.
However, getting a clear picture
of what is happening in the central Asian nation is proving difficult. The
interior ministry released figures of reported casualties among the security
forces, but there were no equivalent reports of any injuries or deaths among
protesters amid what monitoring groups have described as a "nation-scale
internet blackout". Other attempts to end the protests, which began on
Sunday when the government lifted the price cap on liquefied petroleum gas
which many people use to power their cars, causing it to double in cost, have
been made. As well as Mr Nazarbayev's dismissal, the entire government has
resigned.
Protests are not only about
fuel The speed at which the protests turned violent took many by surprise,
both in Kazakhstan and in the wider region, and hinted that they are not only
about an increase in fuel prices. This is a traditionally stable Central
Asian state, which is often described as authoritarian. Until 2019 it was run
by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose rule was marked by elements of a
personality cult, with his statues erected across the country and a capital
renamed after him. Yet when he left, it was amid anti-government
protests which he sought to limit by stepping down and putting a close ally in
his place. Most elections in Kazakhstan are won by the ruling party with
nearly 100% of the vote and there is no effective political opposition. The
analysts I spoke to say that the Kazakh government clearly underestimated how
angry the population was, and that these protests were not surprising in a
country with no electoral democracy - people need to take to the streets to be
heard. And their grievances are almost certainly about a far wider set
of issues than the price of fuel.
^ This is exactly what happened
in Ukraine in 2014. The then Ukrainian Dictator-President, Viktor Yanukovych
murdered 780 Ukrainian Citizens and wounded 1,900 Citizens during EuroMaiden.
He then got Russia involved and then he fled to live in Russia.
Putin then illegally invaded and
occupied Crimea. Since 2014 Russian Occupation Forces have worked to erase all
Ukrainian and Tartar Culture from Crimea – including arresting Men, Women and
Children from Occupied Crimea and deporting them to Russia where no one hear’s
from them again. Crimeans have been forced to use only the Russian Language,
the Internal Russian Passport, the International Russian Passport, the Russian
Education System, the Russian Ruble and Crimean Men are Conscripted into the
Russian Military – basically what Nazi Germany did to Austria when they invaded
and occupied them in 1938 (including holding a Referendum Vote with guns
pointed on everyone who voted.)
International Sanctions (by the
US, Canada, the UK, the EU, etc.) go after any person (Russian or not) who has
anything to do with Occupied Crimea – including visiting there on vacation.
Putin then invaded Donbas in
eastern Ukraine in 2014. They continue to fight the Ukrainians there. 4,619
Ukrainian Soldiers have been killed; 10,500 Ukrainian Soldiers have been
wounded; 5,785 Russian Soldiers have been killed; 13,300 Russian Soldiers have
been wounded; 3,393 Ukrainian Civilians have been killed; 1,414,798 Ukrainian
Civilians have fled to other parts of Ukraine and 925,500 Ukrainian Civilians
have fled to other countries.
Since the Russian-Ukrainian War started
the parts of Ukraine not occupied by Russia (Crimea and Donbas) have higher
standards of living, they are allowed Visa-Free Travel to the EU and Ukraine
has become a Modern Democracy.
Since the Russian-Ukrainian War
started the parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia (Crimea and Donbas) as well as
97.4% of Russia itself has seen a much lower standard of living than they had
before 2014 (Putin even raised the Pension Age to above the average life
expectancy and did away with many benefits – so the majority of Russians will
now be dead before they can retire.)
In Kazakhstan the protests are
similar to Ukraine. The ordinary people want an end to their country’s
Dictatorship (Nursultan Nazarbayev was President for 29 years -until 2019 - when he then made himself Chairman and still
runs everything) and to become Democratic and have a better Standard of Living.
Russian Troops are now going to
go into Kazakhstan and I don’t see them leaving anytime soon. Kazakhstan has
always feared the Russians (since they gained their independence in 1991.) 19%
of the population is ethnic Russian -
due to being deported to Kazakhstan during Soviet Times.
The Kazakhs have tried to change
things over recent years. In 1997, they even moved their capital from Almaty in
the south to Nur-Sultan (named after the Dictator) in the north by the Russian
border. They are also switching the Kazakh Language from the Cyrillic Alphabet
(which Russia uses) to the Latin Alphabet. They have also tried to promote the
use of the Kazakh Language in everyday and official settings instead of the
Russian Language.
Sadly, I see Kazakhstan becoming
another Russian Puppet State as it was during Czarist and Soviet Times) and
everything Russian (Language, Currency, Passport, Military, etc.) replacing
everything Kazakh.
I have Kazakh Friends (in
Kazakhstan, in Russia, in the US and in Israel) and it’s sad to see what
happened to my Ukrainian Friends in 2014 happen to my Kazakh Friends in 2022. ^
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