Author: Assel Iles

The protests in Kazakhstan began on January 1, the reason for this was the increase in prices for liquefied gas by 2 times, which in the western part of Kazakhstan is fuelled by cars. Residents of the city of Zhanaozen (this is the western part of Kazakhstan) took to the street, they came to the city administration and asked to cancel the increase in gas prices and bring officials from the capital who were responsible for the rise in gas prices. Later, the rest of the cities of Kazakhstan joined the protests, people went to rallies in Nur-Sultan (the capital) and in the city of Almaty (a large city in the south). After that, the authorities tried to rectify the situation and on the night of January 3, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev instructed the government to consider the feasibility of raising gas prices. On January 4, it was reported that the price of gas was reduced by 50 tenge (0.46 zloty), but such measures were no longer able to stop the protesters. The rise in gas prices has become a political action, the fact is that the economic problem has become a trigger. Over the past ten years, since the independence of Kazakhstan, the system of personal power of Nursultan Nazarbayev has been formulated, which implied the distribution of basic benefits only in favour of his family and closest entourage, and the bulk of the population was cut off from the opportunity even earning decent money for a living. The protests were the result of the policy pursued by the state.

The people who went to the rallies had a desire to change Kazakhstan and get new political reforms. They wanted justice; corruption got everyone. In March 2019, the first president of Kazakhstan handed over a sufficiently capable, prosperous country into the hands of the next president, and over the two years of his rule, the economic condition of the country gradually began to deteriorate. The President announced that the government was the culprit and on January 5 dismissed the Prime Minister, Mamin, but the members of the government remained in their places. The change of the cabinet of ministers was only a cosmetic step, but everyone knows that changes have occurred in Kazakhstan over the past 30 years.

Although the first president resigned, he retained power over Kazakhstan. And the current president is just a screen behind which the country is ruled by Nazarbayev himself. The protesters asked to remove the screen and Nazarbayev, who was behind the screen. The slogan of the rallies was “old man go away.” But during the protests, something went wrong and taking advantage of the situation the looters began to destroy buildings of state importance, rob shops, and seized the airport in the city of Almaty. In Kazakhstan, the Internet was turned off because of this, many people have lost contact with their relatives and there are still many missing people. Many people suffered and civilians were killed. I do not know the veracity of this information, but the people who caused chaos in the cities were released from the detained prisons. They say that it played into the hands of the opposition. After all the horrors that happened on the streets of the cities, the president declared the protesters terrorists and asked for help from Russia and Belarus. Many were opposed to the Russian military being allowed into Kazakhstan, because they were afraid of the seizure of the northern part of Kazakhstan by Russia and the relationship between Russia would turn out to be the same as with Ukraine and Russia. But fortunately, now the situation has calmed down and Russian troops will be removed from Kazakhstan tomorrow. To date, according to official data, 7,939 people have been detained in Kazakhstan and the cities are being quietly put in order. The curfew is now in the country from 23:00 to 7:00 and the military is stationed on the borders of the cities.

Perhaps you have a question: did these rallies influence the change in the government of Kazakhstan? I have the same question in my head now and I hope for the best. In his last speech, the President said that there will be big changes in the government and I very much hope that this will not remain empty words as it was before.

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