51–60 of 72 posts
As someone actually living in Kazakhstan, I would not take any words of the current government too seriously.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Things aren't actually as clear-cut as you say. While protests started out peacefully things quickly escalated into violence, especially in Almaty. Most notably, armed bandits captured the city's airport, burned most of the government buildings, tried to assault multiple law enforcement agency offices, tried to go live on multiple TV channels, robbed ATMs, etc. The government has promised a large-scale investigation…
Seems pretty clear cut to me. Rioting implies violence. The examples you noted are bound to happen durring such times.
People who started the violence were clearly trained for this and very organized, they were shooting police on the streets, looting firearm stores, giving away firearms to random people to encourage chaos. Also the government ordered police and SWAT teams to leave the cities for 1-2 days which hints at some officials being involved in this.
Russian army wasn't involved in fighting on the streets and certainly wasn't "killing" anyone. Russians were invited mainly for a political and morale effect.
I don't know what the top commenter was reading to get these conclusions, but they are clearly not representing any of the mainstream hypotheses explaining the events. I'm saying this as someone who has his family there when it happened and followed every single piece of news from there full time. And after everything was over I went there and talk to some people who witnessed the events.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Things aren't actually as clear-cut as you say. While protests started out peacefully things quickly escalated into violence, especially in Almaty. Most notably, armed bandits captured the city's airport, burned most of the government buildings, tried to assault multiple law enforcement agency offices, tried to go live on multiple TV channels, robbed ATMs, etc. The government has promised a large-scale investigation…
A good account about why it isn't so clear cut: https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/02/24/what-happened-in-kaz... In a video from January 5th, people can be seen snatching up rifles offloaded by a truck. Some were likely convinced on the spot to grab one of the firearms being handed out, but who was responsible for acquiring them?
There is simply no viable alternative to globalization, interdependence and the international rules-based order Sounds like the check cleared! Really, though, it's just one paragraph after another of pablum. Does it amount to, "All our Uranium reserves belong to WEF!" Anyone know the real story? With this much avoiding-the-topic, there just has to be something nefarious going on.
i was born and raised in Kazakhstan, but left after high school. i've been following the situation in Kazakhstan and recent events give me a glimpse of hope. Kazakhstan, just like any other post-soviet country, suffers from a host of problems inherited from the USSR, such as. - corruption - inefficient political system - erased identity - soviet mentality in addition, our geopolitics is quite challenging. not only do…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
they are kind of 'Surrounded' by Russia and China, there is no other route from Kazahstan to the rest of the world Look at the map, the only other border they have is with a litany of failed states with zero infrastructure or freedom.
Russia has infrastructure and freedom?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are already doing that, they are pivoting to China, in 2023 they are leaving substitute of NATO in east, in which Russia plays a big role, they denied helping Russia with war in Ukraine and after newest China-Kazakhstan meeting it's obvious that China will be a new patron of Kazakhstan and also guarantee their territorial integrity.
Translation: we are sticking to whoever allows us to remain in power and keep our status as is.
For anyone unaware, earlier this year, Kazakhstan faced protests over gas prices (it was a tipping point, there's a lot of wealth inequality) and this president requested the help of Russian security forces to enter the country and help quell riots, and they ended up killing rioters [1]. Most of my Kazakh friends were rooting for the rioters, wanting a more free Kazakhstan, while one friend close to the government wa…
Things aren't actually as clear-cut as you say. While protests started out peacefully things quickly escalated into violence, especially in Almaty. Most notably, armed bandits captured the city's airport, burned most of the government buildings, tried to assault multiple law enforcement agency offices, tried to go live on multiple TV channels, robbed ATMs, etc. The government has promised a large-scale investigation…
When there is a major protest that keeps the Police busy, criminals take the opportunity to loot stores while there is no law enforcement to stop them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Things aren't actually as clear-cut as you say. While protests started out peacefully things quickly escalated into violence, especially in Almaty. Most notably, armed bandits captured the city's airport, burned most of the government buildings, tried to assault multiple law enforcement agency offices, tried to go live on multiple TV channels, robbed ATMs, etc. The government has promised a large-scale investigation…
This happens even in my US city. When there is a major protest that keeps the Police busy, criminals take the opportunity to loot stores while there is no law enforcement to stop them.
For anyone unaware, earlier this year, Kazakhstan faced protests over gas prices (it was a tipping point, there's a lot of wealth inequality) and this president requested the help of Russian security forces to enter the country and help quell riots, and they ended up killing rioters [1]. Most of my Kazakh friends were rooting for the rioters, wanting a more free Kazakhstan, while one friend close to the government wa…
First of all, it's not bad president against good protestors. There were actually two things going on on the streets: peaceful protestors with political and economical demands, and armed organized bandits/terrorists wreaking havoc and destabilising situation as much as they could.
The bandits were killing the police (also going to hospitals to finish any wounded police officers they could find), storming jails trying to set criminals free, burning government buildings, they gave fake calls to firefighters and killed the crews when those arrived.
I leave it to you to read up on who could be orchestrating the bandits. I suggest you focus on local (CIS-based, Russian speaking) news media and telegram channels for that. But one of the important hypotheses is that it was all made by the forces in power opposing Tokaev (the president), and he called the Russians because he didn't trust his own men's loyalty. Russians were protecting some critical infrastructure (which never got attacked, so they didn't fight anyone) including president's headquarters (which was very, very far from the core of riots).