What is happening in Kazakhstan?

[Jaga]

Kazakhstan was in the main news in the US for the second day in row. I am glad that their leader is gone after over 30 years in government, but people are still unhappy and the government uses military force to kill them.

www.wsj.com/articles/kazakhstans-elite-got-richer-on-natural-resources-then-came-the-unrest-11641572839


Kazakhstan’s Elite Got Richer on Natural Resources. Then Came the Unrest.
In a country with huge reserves of oil, precious metals and uranium, the outsize wealth of oligarchs and outrage over corruption fed popular anger



Kazakhstan’s enormous reserves of oil, coal and precious metals offered the promise of a prosperous future for the nation following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The country, the largest of the former Soviet states in Central Asia, represents 40% of the world’s uranium production alone.

Yet Kazakhstan’s relative prosperity hasn’t protected the country’s leadership from popular anger over corruption, low salaries and the outsize wealth of a small group of oligarchs.

[Jaga]

unfortunately WSJ is not accessible to everybody. Here is one of the videos:


Russian troops intervene as protests grip Kazakhstan

at least this took away Russia's attention from Ukraine

[pieter]

The Nur Otan (Kazakh: Нұр Отан, romanized: Nūr Otan, lit. 'Radiant Fatherland' or 'Light of the Fatherland', NO) is a big tent political party in Kazakhstan. Being the largest to date, it has been the ruling party of the country since 1999, with a membership claiming to be of over 762,000 people in 2007. Under leadership of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Nur Otan has constantly won Kazakhstan's presidential and national parliamentary elections, more often in recent history with a supermajority number of votes amidst claims of rigging and lack of viable opposition.

The personality cult of former authoritarian president Nursultan Nazarbayev went far with statues like this in Kazakhstan

Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in office from 24 April 1990 until his formal resignation on 20 March 2019, and as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan from August 1991 to January 2022, holding the title Elbasy (meaning "Leader of the Nation") since 14 June 2010. He was one of the longest-ruling non-royal leaders in the world, having led Kazakhstan for nearly three decades, excluding chairmanship in the Security Council after the end of his presidency. He was named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1989 and was elected as the nation's first president shortly before its independence from the Soviet Union.


The authoritarian Kazakh leader Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev, president of Karakhstan from 1 March 1999 until 23 November 2021

Originally founded on 12 February 1999 as simply Otan (Kazakh: Отан, lit. 'Fatherland') by former Prime Minister Sergey Tereshchenko, after the merger of several previously independent pro-presidential parties, including the People's Union of Kazakhstan Unity, the Liberal Movement of Kazakhstan, and the "For Kazakhstan — 2030" Movement. From there, the Otan eventually absorbed other parties such as the Democratic Party, People's Cooperative Party, Asar, and more recently the Civic and Agrarian parties in 2006 to become the biggest, gaining status of the party of power. In the 2007 legislative elections, the Nur Otan swept all the contested seats in the lower-house Mazhilis, leaving no other parties to have representation until 2012, though leaving its dominant-party control of the Parliament. Nazarbayev resigned as party chairman in November 2021 and is succeed by current President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.


The current President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

The Nur Otan has been viewed as a secular, conservative, catch-all party with an authoritarian form of governance that functions by its branches throughout the country and presence within nationwide institutional resources and maintains offices in all 16 of Kazakhstan’s administrative divisions, as well as 241 local offices which greatly contribute to the party's existence. The Nur Otan itself views as a party of promoting agendas for future reforms in civil service, economic diversity, open government, rule of law, and nationalism.

The ideology of Nur Otan is a mix of Kazakh nationalism, Pragmatic Eurasianism, Authoritarianism, Social conservatism, Economic liberalism and Secularism. The political position of Nur Otan is a Catch-all position. Big tent or catch-all party is used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other parties that defend a determined ideology and seek voters who adhere to that ideology and convince people towards it.

Despite not being affiliated with any political international, the Nur Otan has signed and renewed numerous cooperation agreement with other political parties worldwide. In October 2011 a was signed in Nur-Sultan between Nur Otan and the Pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions, and another in 2015 with United Russia. The Nur Otan cooperates and has affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party (from it's Eurasian orientation), the Justice and Development Party (Turkey) of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the People's Democratic Party (Tajikistan) of the authoritarian Tajik president Emomali Rahmon who rules with elements of a cult of personality.

[pieter]

When I think of Kazakhstan I think of the comical personage Borat of English actor, comedian, writer, and producer Sacha Baron Cohen.

[pieter]

Hudson Institute hosted a discussion on the recent resignation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the future of Kazakhstan. Nursultan Nazarbayev’s sudden resignation as president of Kazakhstan on March 19—a post he had occupied since the country’s independence in 1990—marked the end of a tenure characterized by corruption, electoral fraud, and human rights abuses. Or did it?

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

www.britannica.com/place/Kazakhstan

[karl]

Pieter

We do live in a strange world of unrest and related violence as it would appear by such world events as shown in the case of currant issues in Kazakhstan. But then, when it appears in this case of political corruption in the manner of this case of: A deception of centrol control of power as a political and economic monopoly in the pretense of creating a free market economy against the people of Kazakhstan, this as shown in reality, will give cause for such violence as shown.

What is next? Who knows, if the revolt can be put down by force of Russian military forces, then the problem of holding an entire nation under force as an occupation creates its own issues.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/5/explainer-what-is-behind-the-protests-rocking-kazakhstan


Karl

[Jaga]

Pieter, Karl,

I am glad that Nazarbayev is gone. This protest was caused by people but there seem to be some other forces involved, there was too much burning and destruction of the property. It was almost like a civil war. But we did not know where does it lead. I think that this could even embolden Putin in his case for Ukraine. He already has Belarus and Kazakhstan under his influence.

[pieter]

[Jaga]

Pieter, at least Kazakhstan has a different president. Lets hope that its economy and human rights would improve piece after piece

[pieter]

Jaga,

I hope it with you. I wish the best for people everywhere. Also in a selfish sense. Less problems elsewhere is less mass immigration to Western Europe.

Cheers,
Pieter