71–80 of 330 posts
It seems noteworthy that Kazakhstan represents ~22% of Bitcoins hashrate (~45 TWh/year of electricity), at the same time as people are out in the streets rioting over the price of heating their homes.
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It's very weird to see the President argue 'foreign interests' spark the unrest, and then promptly invites a foreign army to quell it. Who's falling for that?
Foreign army in this context is just using a treaty you signed with an ally to request assistance. It’s as “foreign” as any NATO country’s army to another.
I don't believe your comparison is even remotely adequate.
Could you point out an example of a NATO member requesting a military intervention from another NATO member in their own country to respond to protests?
Because what we're seeing here is a blatant attempt by Russia to preserve Kazakhstan's regime by having foreign armed forces intervene against the nation's civilian population.
My own experience in Kazakhstan a few years ago was amazing — kind, generous people. I had the most surreal (but standard) Russian Bath experience: sitting with a bunch of naked folks as they self-flog with branches in rooms so hot you needed wool caps to keep the top of your head from singeing. When I was getting dressed a huge guy next to me said something in Russian, I was certain I had committed some bath faux pa…
I can't help but feel modern Western society has lost and forgotten something within. It's hard to describe but easier described as nearest to changes in warmth and compassion.
It's only getting worse and these old places it seems ingrained.
Lots of weird extremely Russian-patriot sounding comments in this thread. Russia is sending paratroopers because they don't want another Ukraine situation. They don't want Kazakhstan to break away from Russia because of a popular uprising like Ukraine did. And it's a lot easier for them to prevent it than it was for Ukraine because Ukraine doesn't border Europe so the west won't protest it as much. I expect a whole l…
> Lots of weird extremely Russian-patriot sounding comments in this thread. This kind of nonsense comments appear whenever there are people with positive comments on China or Russia. I guess my top level comment on this thread will be one of the "Russia-patriot" ones. For the record, I am an Indian living in Malaysia - I simply choose to read proper sources and be informed of geopolitical events rather than parrot US…
Treating anything by Noam Chomsky as a good thing to follow is pretty laughable though.
Also it appears your post was flagged and deleted.
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Being Eastern European, I can attest to the fact that this kindness and generosity (poorly abstracted as being passionate about things) has a flip side, and you don’t want to be on the opposite side of this treatment.
Can you elaborate?
I traveled many post-Soviet countries in the past years with my old camping car. My personal impressions in Kazakhstan were frightening. A deeply corrupt state, much worse than Russia. Aggressive armed bandits in police uniform tried to rob me several times. Kazakhstan is true mafia state where every part of the regime tries to enrich itself at the expanse of the people. In contrast to the rich oil elite there are th…
> But why is such a dysfunctional dictatorship so stable? (...) I believe the answer is: it is backed by the West because a stable dictator in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan guarantees the oil flow. And yet, it's Russia and it's strong-arm tactics that are desperately trying to keep Kazakhstan's regime in power. Think about it: Russia is even sending it's paratroopers to Kazakhstan to stomp out unrest. Not the US. Not the…
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"Backed by the west" is a common conspiracy theory pushed by Russian government. You should be asking yourself who's benefiting. The west does not benefit from anything related to those states, all oil they produce first flows through Russia. Russia benefits by having these states as basically feudal subservient states that they can extort for profit. (I will note that most western oil comes from the middle east with…
I went to school with a young kazak person I don't want to reveal to much about them, but let me just say this. Their parents had direct contact to the state and they were unaccountably rich went to an insanely expensive private school and owned various apartments all across Europe. The west DOES benefit from the corruption related to those states.
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The raise of fuel prices was an immediate cause but it probably was long burning dissatisfaction with the economic hardships of the masses vs. prosperous kleptocratic elite. On the other hand it seems that the economy of Kazakhstan was one of the best among other stans. It is possible that prolonged covid restrictions also played the role.
No no no, it's all the war between US and Russia, people are just dust, they can only be manipulated! /s (this is what every russian bot is saying)
I traveled many post-Soviet countries in the past years with my old camping car. My personal impressions in Kazakhstan were frightening. A deeply corrupt state, much worse than Russia. Aggressive armed bandits in police uniform tried to rob me several times. Kazakhstan is true mafia state where every part of the regime tries to enrich itself at the expanse of the people. In contrast to the rich oil elite there are th…
> But why is such a dysfunctional dictatorship so stable? (...) I believe the answer is: it is backed by the West because a stable dictator in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan guarantees the oil flow. And yet, it's Russia and it's strong-arm tactics that are desperately trying to keep Kazakhstan's regime in power. Think about it: Russia is even sending it's paratroopers to Kazakhstan to stomp out unrest. Not the US. Not the…