Knowledge of Kazakhstan in the West is extremely slim, particularly among western media, and many responses to events there have been wildly off-beam.
The narrative on the right is that Putin is looking to annex Kazakhstan, or at least the majority ethnic Russian areas in the north. This is utter nonsense.
The narrative on the left is that the CIA is attempting to instigate another colour revolution and put a puppet regime into Nur-Sultan (as the capital is called this week). This also is utter nonsense.
The lack of intellectual flexibility among western commentators entrapped in the confines of their own culture wars is a well-established feature of modern political society. Distorting a picture into this frame is not so easily detectable where the public have no idea what the picture normally looks like, as with Kazakhstan.
When you jump into a taxi in Kazakhstan, getting your suitcase into the boot is often problematic as it will be already full with a large LPG canister. Roof racks are big in Kazakhstan. Most Kazakh vehicles run on LPG, which has traditionally been a subsidised product of the nation’s massive oil and gas industry.
Fuel price rises have become, worldwide, a particular trigger of public discontent. The origins of the gilets jaunes movement in France lay in fuel price rises before spreading to other areas of popular greivance. The legacy of fuel protests in the UK have led for years cowardly politicians to submit to annual real reductions in the rate of fuel duty, despite climate change concerns.
The current political crisis in Kazakhstan was spiked by moves to deregulate the LPG market and end subsidy, which led to sharp price increases. These brought people onto the streets. The government quickly backed down and tried to reinstate price controls but not producer subsidies; that would have led gas stations to sell at a loss. The result was fuel shortages that just made protest worse.
Kazakhstan is an authoritarian dictatorship with extreme divisions in wealth and power between the ruling class – often still the old Soviet nomenklatura and their families – and everybody else. No political opposition is permitted. Infamously, after a massacre of striking miners, Tony Blair contacted former dictator Nazarbayev offering his PR services to help limit political fallout. This resulted in a $4 million per year contract for Blair to assist Kazakhstan’s PR, a contract on which BBC favourites Jonathon Powell and Alastair Campbell both worked.
One result of the Blairite media management for Kazakhstan was that the Guardian, publishing US leaked diplomatic cables in cooperation with Wikileaks, refused to publish US Embassy reports on corruption in Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh dictatorship is also a favourite destination of troughing royals Prince Andrew and Prince Michael of Kent.
I always viewed President Nazarbayev as the smartest of the Central Asian dictators. He allowed much greater individual economic freedom than in neighbouring Uzbekistan; Kazakhs could build up enterprises without the fear of having them confiscated at whim by the ruling family, and the collective farm land was given to native farmers and production diversified. Nazarbayev in foreign affairs skilfully balanced between Russia, the West and China, never definitively tilting in one direction. Ethnic Russian technocrats and academics were not driven from the country. Gazprom was not permitted to obtain dominant economic control.
There was no question of democracy being permitted or any form of opposition being given a voice. Media remained firmly under state control; internet access was restricted through designated ISP’s – I believe that has subsequently loosened, but I will not pretend to know the detail. But as in all systems with no democratic accountability and with effective legal impunity for the elite, corruption worsened, systems became sclerotic and frustration and resentment among the general population has built naturally.
The change of President two years ago from Nazarbayev to Tokayev brought no substantial changes in who runs the country.
The fuel price rises triggered protest, and once a population that had seen no outlet for its frustration viewed the chance to protest, then popular frustration erupted into popular dissent. However with no popular opposition leaders to direct it, this quickly became an incoherent boiling up of rage, resulting in destruction and looting.
So where do the CIA come in? They don’t. They were trying to groom a banned opposition leader (whose name I recall as Kozlov, but that may be wrong) but then discovered he was not willing to be their puppet, and the scheme was abandoned under Trump. The CIA were as taken aback by events as everybody else, and they don’t have any significant resources on the ground, or a Juan Gaido to jet in.
So where does Putin come in? Well, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation is a club of authoritarian ex-Soviet leaders. Interestingly, Uzbekistan never joined because Karimov always worried (with some justification) Putin might wish to depose him. President Tokayev’s call for help is a very definite sign of internal weakness. All the CSTO countries have an interest in discouraging popular unrest, so it is unsurprising they have sent in troops, but in numbers which can make no real difference in a vast country like Kazakhstan (which is really, really, really big).
So what happens next? I expect the regime will survive, but then neither I, nor any observer I know of, predicted this would happen in the first place. The unrest will be blamed, entirely untruthfully, on Islamic terrorists and western support. The real consequence may be in the globally important pipeline politics of the region, where there may be a long term shift away from China and towards Russia.
There will be frustration in Beijing as much as in Washington. Tokayev is now indebted to Putin in a way he never has been before. I can guarantee that emergency meetings at the highest level are taking place between the Kremlin and Gazprom right now to determine what they want to leverage from the situation. Putin, as Napoleon might have observed, is an extremely lucky general.
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Some more background which chimes with Craig’s report:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/08/inequality-protest-authoritarian-kazakh-government
A familiar tale of authoritarian elites in a resource rich state, from which its own citizens do not benefit, while corporate interests in cahoots with the elite extract the wealth, and where a compliant media is censored should they speak out.
And where does a lot of that money go? Oh look,
” Large sums of Kazakh money are sequestered in London (where “British professional service providers enable post-Soviet elites to launder their money and reputations”, a stinging Chatham House report noted last month). Anti-corruption campaigners have rightly urged that as the rich and well-connected flee, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and service providers should be watching carefully and reporting, freezing and seizing assets as appropriate.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/06/the-guardian-view-on-kazakhstans-unrest-danger-ahead
In all the usual confusion of conflict, two recurrent patterns are again abundantly clear.
Humanity desperately needs to end its dependency upon fossil fuels, because control over them is always a source of conflict.
Conflict between groups and populations are always used and exploited by the various factions of power.
Clark, if you think that there won’t be conflict over control of non-oil energy resources, I think you need to face up to reality a bit more.
Pharmaceutical resources next?
Meanwhile, Kazakhs in London protest:
https://twitter.com/paulmasonnews/status/1479812555069698055?s=20
https://twitter.com/paulmasonnews/status/1479812725199060993?s=20
The leader of the protests is the very energy minister who sold out some 75% of Kazakhstan’s energy / resource mining interests to foreign countries. Kazakhstan is source for some 40% of the world’s uranium. The capital gained from the sales is rapidly ‘exported’ to safe western havens, leaving Kazakhs double stabbed in the back – no real economic improvement from the sales and facing ‘speculator driven’ spot energy prices.
Nazarbayev is at best Kazakhstan’s ‘Eltsin – a gullible fool laughed at by those looting and destroying his country.
“Police carry out at least 10 “preventive arrests” ahead of a planned protest called by fugitive businessman and former Energy Minister Mukhtar Ablyazov, leader of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK).”
https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-protests-energy-lng-price/31638800.html
Edit above post.
Following the random guy episode in the Venezuela regime change op, I expect Ablyazov to be deemed the legitimate leader of Kazkhstan, and any Kazakh assets (eg gold) held in the west to be transferred to him (less a suitably large commission for the usual suspects).
funny that you mention Venezuela, I thought of Guaido too.
Ablyazov’s phrase “I see myself as a leader of the protest and I am ready to head the government” reminded me of a very funny joke: “Guaido identifies himself as the President of Venezuela and believes that this gives him the right to a gold reserve of the state” was said in a discussion of this trending modern gender policy, where a man may declare himself a woman and participate in women’s sports competitions, or request transfer to a women’s prison.
Is the church still resisting this fashion? I saw that same-sex marriages are already being crowned in the church, so they are moving already in that direction. I think some monks would like to take advantage of the wave and move to a female nunnery.
Tatyana,
Your ideas seem to intersect with some thoughts I exchanged on another forum:-
” To shift the focus a bit from the evident economic decline of the US – then I ask rhetorically – if on the most simple points of logics those in high positions in the US cannot be logical – then don’t be surprised that in the complex issues of finance and economics they get it so wrong.
How can I say that?
Well, one example.
I was born – a male baby who grew to be an adult male. I also assisted in the process which produced a female child. So far – so good. One gender is male and the other is female.
Oh – not so I am told by LGBT. Why? A man can be a woman and a woman can be a man. Really?
Well, in my special field of endeavour – the law – I try to keep ‘abreast’ (pun intended) of legal developments around the world. So, recently I noted that in a number of states in the US, under the law, a person could self-identify as a male or a female.
Sorry that change came so late in my life. Why so? As a youngster I could not make the track team in Jamaica – but got medals competing in England where I studied. So, if it were today, I would simply self-identify as a woman and then compete on the women’s track team and win all the medals going – for my times back then were faster than the fastest women athletes in the world.
One other sobering thought is that ever I fell foul of the law in the US and had to face trial – I would easily pave a safe path forward. Before my trial I would cast off my pants for a dress. Next, I would put lipstick on my lips. Then I would ensure that I would not surgically remove my third leg. So, by the time the trial rolled round I would, by self-proclamation be a ‘woman’. And finally, if convicted, I would have a captive audience for fun in my female prison cell.
What a truly stupid set of people!”
Truly stupid set of people 🙂 why stopping at gender issues? Dream big! Self-identify as a God!
With all due respect to both of you, you are trivialising a complex issue. Homosexuality and transgenderism are different things, neither one implies the other, and both have been around since humans began writing things down and probably before that.
If two consenting adults (or more) of the same sex wish to engage in sexual activities who am I or you to tell them it’s wrong? Equally the same goes for transgender people. If they wish to be identified as such who, for the most part, cares? I don’t however believe that male to female transgender people ought to be allowed to compete in female sports competitions as female nor have access to female toilets. As a society we have yet to come to terms with dealing with those who are genuinely transgender and differentiate them from the predatory types who use it only to advance their predition. That doesn’t mean that there are not people who are genuine in their pursuit to “change gender.”
ET,
With respect I do not believe that you make an effective point.
I did not express any denial that homosexuality is a fact within human existence.
Now, to the real point which is the self-identifying as male or female – to which you say:-
“Equally the same goes for transgender people. If they wish to be identified as such who, for the most part, cares? I don’t however believe that male to female transgender people ought to be allowed to compete in female sports competitions as female nor have access to female toilets.”
So, because you don’t “believe that male to female transgender people ought to be allowed to compete in female sports competitions as female nor have access to female toilets”, you are accepting my core point about biological differences within gender.
End of argument.
ET
I have long understood that my opinions should be kept to myself and not expressed until I’m asked. My recent communication about BLM revealed this obvious thing to me – people do not care who is right or wrong in fact, people are interested in respect.
Blacks are concerned with being given the respect they deserve, not racism.
Believers want respect for their religion, not intolerance.
Feminists want equal rights, not discrimination.
etc.
Everything that is now called “tolerance” should be called “social respect”. Easily understandable and widely accepted concept.
As far as transgender people are concerned, I just recently had a family visit and was chatting with a cousin who works in civil registration (you know, marriage, birth, death documents, etc.) I was amazed to find out that people change gender for long here in Russia. There’s a law and there’s a procedure. People receive from her a new passport with a different sex, but the necessary basis is a medical document. And here felt very grateful to my government that they considered a simple verbally expressed desire as not enough ground to change gender in a passport! Oherwise the problem, which can be a matter of life and death for true transgender people, would turn into a fucking farce with witty cunning examples as described above.
People are often unaware that a condition of transitioning by self-identification is that it is specified to be permanent, the subject undertakes to live as their new gender henceforth. There is no entitlement to keep transitioning back and forth.
This is like the bigoted argument against access to abortion, that women will use abortion instead of contraception, as if becoming pregnant, making a decision, and undergoing a termination amounted to a triviality.
Courtenay Barnett, you quoted: “Sorry that change came so late in my life. […] if it were today, I would simply self-identify as a woman and then compete on the women’s track team and win all the medals going”. Really? Do you believe that this man really meant this, that he would henceforth live every aspect of his life as a woman, merely to have won medals? Or is it more likely that he was merely trying to win an argument about transgender issues? Likewise, would he also really be willing to go to prison, so long as he would be locked in a prison for women yet still have a penis? If so, he sounds like an utterly obsessive abuser, and maybe his opinion isn’t worth very much.
I can just see him, back to being dressed and living as a man again, down the pub, showing off his medals for a woman to all his macho male friends! What a pyrrhic victory.
Clark
I guess that Courtenay may were having in mind the most prominent gender hypocrisy case, when a male prisoner, convicted for rape, claimed to feel like a woman and he was moved to a female prison. That man committed rape immediately in his new place of imprisonment.
Also, you say ‘There is no entitlement to keep transitioning back and forth.’
I think you should add ‘so far’
Tatyana, that is outrageous. I didn’t know, I don’t follow “current affairs”.
But our assessment of trans people must not be based upon the opportunistic behaviour of one (nor even a few) criminals, nor the stupidity, or more likely the cruelty and misogyny, of some prison’s authority.
No, I won’t add “so far”. Slippery slope arguments have a long and sordid history; remember McCarthyism for instance.
Clark, you seem to mix our attitude towards transpeople and our attitude towards absurd laws.
Courtenay Barnett how would you classify (if that is the correct terminology) a human with karyotype 46, x,y with gonadal dysgenisis and expressing a female phenotype with normal female external genitalia? For sure it is rare and often not discovered until puberty fails to occur or later, before which that person would have been regarded as female throughout. Like a lot of things especially where genotype, phenotype, psychology, and environment are involved things have a habit of not being so readily amenable to simplistic reasoning. By simplistic I don’t mean to insult you, more that it is a complex issue that is more complex and nuanced than xy = male and xx = female and I would urge you to be a little more open minded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_gonadal_dysgenesis
Understanding grows with time. If you happened across someone experiencing an epilectic fit would you call an ambulance or an exorcist?
ET
I understand the question is not for me.
But I think your government is much more interested in ‘karyotype 46, x,y with gonadal dysgenisis and expressing a female phenotype’, because these people may be pleased to get attention, and pay back by voting for this government. Unlike my karyotype ‘ light skin, grey eyes, chestnut hair, cisgender woman’ that is seen as ‘too common and too busy with too dull too ordinary family life’ to raise any significant attention to their gender-related policy.
Tatyana, self identification in the form that I have seen it, ie. permanent transition, does not seem absurd to me. Both a person’s genetic status, and their body shape are not really the government’s business. They may be medical matters, but a person’s medical status should be confidential between that person and their doctors, apart from very specific things like the need for good vision for driving etc. Generally, governments should respect and protect all people’s rights, regardless of their gender.
Obviously, a person convicted of sexually abusing women shouldn’t be placed such that they can abuse women in prison, but that applies whatever the gender of the convicted abuser. Rape is committed by people, not penises. Something very wrong was done in the case you referred to, and having read Craig’s account of prison, I wonder if there was an element of “this’ll teach those bitches” to it.
“But I think your government is much more interested in ‘karyotype 46, x,y with gonadal dysgenisis and expressing a female phenotype’, because these people may be pleased to get attention, and pay back by voting for this government”
Tatyana, you are missing the point and it’s got nothing to do with governments or policy. Gonadal dysgenesis is rare but does occur. They are 46, x, y, chromosomally male. However, their gonads are non functional therefore do not produce testosterone at the embryolocical stage and therefore their genital tract develops as female (because testosterone is not present to direct the formation of a male genital tract) and with streaks of tissue where there should be gonads, they have neither ovaries nor testes. It happens in-utero and it’s not like these people have a choice. The birth will be registered as a female child unless there was a prior genetic family history prompting investigation at birth. They will most likely have never been diagnosed until it is noticed they have not gone through puberty and are not menstruating (because the “gonadal tissue” can’t produce oestrogen/progesterone either) and mum will take her to the doctor to find out why. How would you deal with that situation? Are you going to tell this girl that now she is a male (with a female genital tract except for ovaries)? If this was your child how would you like it dealt with?
The point is that the presence of male type chromosomes or karyotype doesn’t necessarily mean that those male type genes are expressed. Gonadal dysgenesis is an extreme example and addresses only chromosomes. Neither am I saying that transgenderism is only genetic. I was using it as a clear example that breaks the 46, x, y can only be male thing.
It’s not that long ago that women were considered too stupid to vote, a seperate class of human with inferior brains. During the first elections in which women could vote they had to be over 30 whilst men had to be over 21. Thankfully we have moved on from such nonsense.
“If this was your child how would you like it dealt with? “
For clarification “it” refers to the situation not the chld. I assume most would wish that both the child and the situation be handled with dignity, humanity and professionalism.
ET
Yes, but can medical science change the physical gender of a human body and if a certain mental process can occur in both a male and a female body how do you know which kind of body it belongs in?
As Germaine Grear said, “a woman isn’t just a man without a dick”.
Let me explain :-
1. Here are the six most common karyotypes of biological sex in human beings that do not result in death to the fetus:
X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s )
XX – Most common form of female
XXY – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people (Klinefelter)
XY – Most common form of male
XYY – Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people
XXXY – Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births
https://www.joshuakennon.com/the-six-common-biological-sexes-in-humans/
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=how+many+trans+people+are+there%3F&ia=web
2. The molecular biology that underlies gender identity, the development of gonadal and genital anatomy, and the factors that define sexual behaviour is proving unexpectedly complex and is still incompletely understood. It is now evident that humans cannot be characterized as member of 1 of 2 clearly defined units: male or female. In fact, individuals exist on a continuum: those who do not conform unequivocally to the dyadic view of human sex in terms of anatomy, gender identity, and/or sexual behaviour should be characterized as having variations in rather than disorders of sexual development. Such individuals can no longer be regarded as anomalies to be rejected, condemned, and, if possible, “corrected” either psychologically or anatomically.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2470289718803639
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=variations+in+biologcal+sex+humans&t=ffsb&ia=web
3. Other cultures have acknowledged the scientific reality of “trans” without imploding. India has a long history of recognising a third gender – Hijras were well-respected and revered in ancient India, and since 2014 legally recognised in India.
https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/10/29/indias-relationship-with-the-third-gender/
4. Native American cultures for thousands of years before Europeans murdered most of them encouraged their children to chose their own gender roles.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Native+American+has+a+third+gender&t=ffab&ia=web
5. Work place discrimination is orders of magnitude worse for “trans” people. In the US in 2020 more than one in four transgender people have lost a job due to bias, and more than three-fourths have experienced some form of workplace discrimination. Extreme levels of unemployment and poverty lead one in eight to become involved in underground economies—such as sex and drug work—in order to survive. In December 2011 the UK government shared the statistic that 88% of transgender employees experience discrimination or harassment in their workplace and the aim for recent legislation to remedy this. One in eight trans employees (12 per cent) have been physically attacked by a colleague or customer in the last year (2017). A quarter have experienced homelessness.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=workplace+discrimination+transgender+data&t=ffsb&ia=web
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transphobia#In_the_workplace
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/lgbt-britain-trans-report
6. Let assume the occurrence of sexual predators / rapists / murderers in the ‘trans’ population is the same as in the rest of the population (US close to global average: rape 27 / 100,000; homicide 6 / 100,000) or about 0.0000017% of the global population.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/violent-crime-rates-by-country
7. Conclusion. There appears nearly completely groundlessly worry that DOOM will surely consume us all, if we update law and social conventions in light of acknowledging a) that biological sex in human beings has more than the just the binary male and female DNA karyotypes, and b) that 1.7 people per million of the worlds population have such non-binary DNA karyotypes as well as being sexual predators / rapists / murderers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSHvgaUWc8
Clark
Again, absurdity is about law, not about transition. Your laws are too absurd because they are too vague, trying to cover too broad collection of too much of human situations.
ET,
You observed:-
” Courtenay Barnett how would you classify (if that is the correct terminology) a human with karyotype 46, x,y with gonadal dysgenisis and expressing a female phenotype with normal female external genitalia?”
It seems to me that a specific medical classification should not be confused with voluntary self-identification.
It was not just one case of rape in the prison in the US. I believe that public policy should not be devoid of common sense. Be that self-identifying male/female in prison or male/female competing as female.
In Cuba, as best I know, the operation for transition is permitted and is free.
My points relate to common sense and are not about hating any other human being.
Make of these two reports what you will.
https://sputniknews.com/20220107/coincidence-us-foreign-ngos-may-have-played-key-role-in-social-unrest-in-kazakhstan-expert-says-1092101738.html
https://www.icnl.org/resources/civic-freedom-monitor/kazakhstan
Apologies forgot to add this from second link.
“The fines and suspension of the NGO activities contradict the priorities of the development of civil society announced by the state and damage international reputation of Kazakhstan. Echo and International Legal Initiative organizations have been fined 400 MCI (1,166,800 KZT) each and their activities have been suspended for 3 months. Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law was fined 800 MCI (2,333,600 KZT) with a suspension of activities for 3 months. Another organization Erkindik Qanaty was fined 100 MCI (277 800 KZT). Thus, the total amount of fines for only 4 non-governmental organizations amounted to almost 5 million tenge. In the near future, this amount for all organizations can reach tens of millions tenge.”
In conjunction with the first link’s report it could amount to something.
i’ll just leave this here in regard to the 3rd paragraph –
The U.S. Directed Rebellion in Kazakhstan May Well Strengthen Russia
In early 2019 the Pentagon-financed think tank RAND published an extensive plan for soft attacks on Russia.
Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground.
The 350 pages long report recommended certain steps to be taken by the U.S. to contain Russia. As its summary says:
Recognizing that some level of competition with Russia is inevitable, this report seeks to define areas where the United States can do so to its advantage. We examine a range of nonviolent measures that could exploit Russia’s actual vulnerabilities and anxieties as a way of stressing Russia’s military and economy and the regime’s political standing at home and abroad. The steps we examine would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose, although they might contribute to both. Rather, these steps are conceived of as elements in a campaign designed to unbalance the adversary, leading Russia to compete in domains or regions where the United States has a competitive advantage, and causing Russia to overextend itself militarily or economically or causing the regime to lose domestic and/or international prestige and influence.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/01/the-us-directed-rebellion-in-kazakhstan-may-well-strengthen-russia.html#more
It would have been a good idea to have included from the Rand Report cited above the list of countries to be used to weaken Russia. The second link by the Moon of Alabama gives this list. Up till a few days ago Kazakhstan was the only one that had not been affected. Now have a look at this:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/01/mysteries-of-the-failed-rebellion-in-kazakhstan.html#more
8 January 2022
And.. as expected from the US.. Check this Transcript –
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to a question on Thursday about Kazakhstan. Here’s a transcript of that exchange from the official White House website:
“Q And then, on the situation in Kazakhstan, does what is happening there in any way change the dynamic for the U.S.-Russia talks that are going to begin next week, from the U.S. side? And is there any thought that Putin might be less likely to invade Ukraine while this crisis is playing out in Kazakhstan?
MS. PSAKI: Well, let me touch on a couple of things. First, to provide all of you an update — and you may have seen this — but today, Secretary Blinken shared a productive call with Kazakhstan foreign minister — with the Kazakhstan foreign minister, where he reaffirmed the United States full support for Kazakhstan’s constitutional institutions, human rights, media freedom, including through the restoration of Internet service, and advocated for a peaceful, rights- respecting resolution to the crisis.
There have been, kind of, a range of reports about peacekeeping forces, which I think you might be referencing, but — from Russia. We are closely monitoring reports that the Collective Security Treaty Organization have dispatched its collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan. We have questions about the nature of this request and whether it has — it was a legitimate invitation or not. We don’t know at this point.
The world will, of course, be watching for any violation of human rights and actions that may lay the predicate for the seizure of Kazakh institutions, and we call on the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces and law enforcement to uphold international human rights obligations in order to support a peaceful resolution.”
By –
Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-challenges-the-cstos-kazakhstani-peacekeeping-mission/5766498
poor Jen Psaki obviously got her position on the quota for disabled people, since she is not able to see the official appeal of the President of Kazakhstan to the CSTO organization; nor the decision of the Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan, who this year is the CSTO chairman; nor the CSTO’s official notification to the UN about the joint forces of several CSTO member states being deployed to Kazakhstan.
Blinken probably got his post under the same quota. He believes that 5,000 soldiers may conquer Kazahstan.
Tatyana, I expected better of you than to denigrate people with disabilities. Propaganda is voluntary. Disability is not.
I’m Russian, Clark. You may expect all sorts of disrespect from me, including denigrating disabled people, or spreading propaganda. I’m not that civilized as to respect people around me.
That’s a bit of an unfair generalisation. I have a Russian friend, a Moscovite, and she is very thoughtful and respectful. I have yet to hear her denigrate another on account of the way they were born. I’m not aware of her spreading propaganda either, for that matter.
This is super funny now!
Ms. Psaki is NOT disabled. Your comment reveals that you believe she IS 🙂
Now I see that this website interface really doesn’t need any smileys or ‘sarcasm’ plates, or we would miss additional levels of fun. Let it stay as it is!
wait, is the ‘sarcasm’ sign missing in your comment as well? did you mean that the comparison with Psaki denigrates the disabled? Clark?
Clark
Is it denigration to suggest that blind people can’t see?
No, Johnny, it isn’t but it is denigration to suggest that because someone has a disability such as blindness that that somehow infers that their intellectual capacity is also reduced. I also noticed the implied denigration but decided to say nothing for fear that Tatyana might think I am picking on her, which I am not. I enjoy Tatyana’s contributions (and indeed Coutenay’s) as much as anyone.
“poor Jen Psaki obviously got her position on the quota for disabled people”
The inference is that Jen Psaki, whose opinions are dumb because they are dumb and not because she is “disabled” got her job because she fulfilled a quota for disabled people her employers had to fulfill and wouldn’t otherwise have been capable enough to have got that job. This somehow also imples that disabled people only get jobs because they are disabled and not simply because they are just as capable as anyone else doing that job despite whatever disability they have. I don’t think for a second that Tatyana meant it like that but it’s there nonetheless. There is an inferred connection betweeen Psaki and stupid opinions and having a disability which I think is unfair to disabled people.
Oh, come on! She was extra silly with Obama’s office and she is hired again with Biden’s. She alone makes the whole White House look like a nest of dumb people!
Who in their sane mind would willingly hire her again? Unless only they have to do it due to quotas.
I wonder, how many people here would get triggered, if I joked on the helicopter gay crew? Biden commented on that crew, that the power on the US army is in the diversity, and I find it extremely funny.
It’s called implicit bias or unconscious bias Tatyana.
It’s a similar comment I have heard hundreds of times in casual conversations with friends and others, he/she is so stupid/inadequate at their job they could only have gotten the job as part of a quota for disabled people. It’s usually meant as a wise crack humorous smart-ass comment to get a laugh. I probably have laughed along on occasion and probably made a similar comment myself.
The implicit bias is that disabled people are stupid or inadequate at their jobs, disability = stupidity/inadequacy.
“Who in their sane mind would willingly hire her again? Unless only they have to do it due to quotas.”
Jen Psaki is so inadequate at her job and stupid she could only have been hired as part of a disabled quota. Disability = inadequacy and/or stupidity. Disabled people are stupid and incapable and only get jobs because of quotas.
All russians are vodka-drinking communist stalinistic dictators who want to take over the world. I’d be equally “triggered” by that.
It’s called the inability to distinguish between subject and object, ET.
It’s similar to what I have seen hundreds of times, people feel some negative in one phrase with the protected minority, and immediately rush to the defense.
Miss Psaki’s wit and her job show the dumbness of those who hired her, despite the blatant discrepancy between her mental capacity and the position held. If you have any plausible explanations, other than quotas for disabled, then please kindly share.
I’m not triggered by words that are not true. I’m not looking for some hidden negative meanings to trigger.
In fact, when I first appeared on this site, we were discussing stereotypes about Russians, in an adorable comedic manner, figuring out what kind of vodka I like and what kind of food my pet bear prefers. The charming dialogue is still somewhere in the archives of this site. [ May 13, 2018 at 22:39 ]
Not only have you doubled down but now tripled down on this.
“Miss Psaki’s wit and her job show the dumbness of those who hired her, despite the blatant discrepancy between her mental capacity and the position held. If you have any plausible explanations, other than quotas for disabled, then please kindly share.”
Miss Psaki obviously only got the job because of quotas for women. The insult is to women in that statement not to Miss Psaki.
Miss Psaki obviously only got the job because of quotas for….pick a particular race, religion, nationality, sexuality, group, gender or whatever because that particular race, religion, nationality, sexuality, group, gender, whatever are obviously stupid and incapable.
“despite the blatant discrepancy between her mental capacity and the position held.”
So she got the job because of disabled quotas thereby explicitly implying all disabled people have deficient mental capacity.
It has zero to do with Miss Psaki or what she says. It has everything to do with you equating disability with her negative qualities and implying every disabled person on the planet has those qualities which you have now done for the third time.
This (fictitious) person at work today was so stupid they could only have been employed because of disabled quotas. Who am I insulting, the annoying work colleague or disabled people as a group?
These are fine moral arguments about political correctness, but they don’t have much to do with the topic of Kazakhstan.
You’re welcome to continue this exploration of relative moral perspectives in the discussion forum.
Any more reports of head-choppers?
All Kazakh paths lead to the City of London & their hit agency, the MI6: Longtime experts of the land & generators of the most corporate corruption.
It’s great to see you back in the saddle Mr. Murray. I’ve got one question. If this was spontaneous, how did the Russians manage to send across significant amounts of forces so quickly, like within a few hours. Do they have superlative logistics or was this a scenario or did they know this was going to happen and were prepared precisely for this. The view I am getting is that there was surveillance on western assets and that the mopping up operation will bring them to Moscow for interrogation. Russia views the events last year in Belarus as a spectacular Ukrainian / CIA operation. There’s a really long narrative concerning Russian mercenaries who are spun a line by the Ukrainian secret services and recruit a company for dislocation to Minsk… neoliberal policies promote a reaction which is to the benefit of the Washington consensus. There have been lists of demands (provenance obviously unclear) that mandates the ending of treaties with Russia as a key demand. What I do think is that all of this has got a kind of absurd aspect to it. It’s interesting to see the Armenians and their rather lukewarm-on-Russia president being so full throated but I guess he’s still hungover from Karabahk and the Azeris.
“Do they have superlative logistics or was this a scenario or did they know this was going to happen and were prepared precisely for this”.
Both, I believe. The Russian armed forces have long made superb provision for rapid deployment of troops, equuipment and heavy weapons. I have seen video online of light tanks being dropped from aircraft and landing ready to go into action.
Of course, their focus is strictly on the areas around Russia’s own borders – unlike the USA, UK and NATO which wish to interfere violently in every part of the world.
CSTO exists for 20 years and holds joint exercise, together with the UN instructors on peacekeeping missions. So, they were ready. And yes, their focus is strictly on the areas around Russian borders, because the CSTO members are the countries bordering Russia.
Hi Tatyana, would you be very kind watch the following video tell Baron what you make of it, it’s by Anatolij Sharij. Is he broadly correct? What are these young, middle and old factions, is it really age that forms them, are you aware of them? Anything else would be appreciated, thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNsZXUEIioU
Hi Baron,
Yes, he’s right. His assessment of the events was made on January 5 and largely coincided with what happened in reality later. He drew attention to the unusual organization of the protesters, and this is confirmed today.
I really appreciate this blogger. He is crystal-clear and courageous, his method is deep examination of the materials before he makes his opinions. He is Ukrainian and a patriot, but he does not allow himself to deviate from common sense. He opposes the Ukrainian government, and in general, against corruption and dishonesty.
But more importantly, he recognises his mistakes. I saw his interview where he said that, before moving to Europe he was prejudiced against gays, but then he met some cool guys and he apologized for his discrimanatory sayings.
Anatoly considers Julian Assange the greatest ever journalist.
Those players who could also have influenced the crisis in Kazakhstan: this is Turkey, which is building its Great Turan and considers Kazakhstan the pearl of the Turkish-speaking world. And this is ISIS, which has recruited many young people from this region.
Kazakhstan’s government runs a program to return compatriots recruited by ISIS. Also Kazakhstan has been repatriating ethnic Kazakhs for 20 years, including from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The largest number of repatriates live in the Mangistau and AlmaAta regions, those that rebelled.
The assessment of President Tokayev, and Anatoly Sharij, and many others, is that they were well-organized militants. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine that raising the price of fuel from 0.13 to 0.28 dollars could push peaceful protesters to arm themselves, seize military units, a television center and an airport.
Moreover, the prices were quickly settled and even the government was dismissed! If they were ordinary citizens, they would be pleased with the fact thet their demands are fulfilled and rather would go home, right?
Kazakhstan, I described factions here, long discussion
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/01/what-kazakhstan-isnt/comment-page-1/#comment-1006534
Thanks Tom. They started arriving 13 hours from the agreement. That’s impressive. Allegations are bing made of external involvement of 20k people with air tickets and a couple of hundred dollars per person. The idea of buying air tickets for mass amounts of people and accomodating them in Kazakhstan strikes me as far fetched and easy to trace but the coordinated nature of the assaults particularly on non governmental agencies (The press being attacked for no pecuniary gain certainly evokes theories of external and planned intervention). So we see a plan being established and progressed which has a declared aim of having Kazakhstan exit treaties made with Russia and a response from Russia and the CSTO which was also planned and progressed. (I’ve seen those tanks as well).
Here’s an interesting piece from b at Moon of Alabama blog: Mysteries of the Failed Rebellion in Kazakhstan.
He suggests somewhat greater British influence over the cabal that runs Kazakhstan (or did up until the last few days) than Craig asserts. It’s interesting to note that b is a German blogger with an astute perspective on geopolitics. He has however, very little to say about the activities of the German government and it’s security services for instance with respect to Ukraine, but has no such qualms about exposing the shenanigans of US and British NATO partners. I know Craig is a fearless speaker of truth to power but given the current situation we should not expect him to wax on potential MI6 involvement in the apparent failed coup. I just wonder what the hell Johnson is getting us into and who is paying him. Putin will not forgive or forget. Let’s hope the British electorate won’t either.
Bernhard is German, but always addresses an American audience. Anything European gets completely lost, because his audience aren’t interested, or often even know much about what happens in Europe. Europe is a sort of mythic place which nobody knows much about (including UK).
Mr. Murray is at least honest when he volunteers…….“but then neither I, nor any observer I know of, predicted this would happen in the first place”…… As a man once said, “events dear boy, events”
I have a gross ignorance of Kazakhstan, but after reading comments here and then researching as studiously as I’m capable I can humbly say, I’m still not an expert.
Mr. Murray will know, all too well, that over the decades there have been riots in numerous countries when bottled gas, paraffin and humble cooking oil prices are hit with outrageous tax rises.
The Gilets Jaunes we’re not a citizen protest in an undeveloped country. The chance of public outrage boiling over with current energy policies is worrying.
As to Kazakhstan.
It is of major importance to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, it was here Xi announced the B&RI.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3162581/kazakhstan-unrest-how-will-chinas-economic-interests-be
And according to this Aus.Gov. information handout it has “over 60 out of 105 elements of Mendeleev’s Table”
https://www.austrade.gov.au/australian/export/export-markets/countries/kazakhstan/industries
One of those elements is Uranium. Kazakhstan supplies 40% of world needs, and has 12% of known reserves. In simple economic terms that means they near as dammit control the world price.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Uranium-sector-monitors-evolving-Kazakh-situation
Mr. Murray also highlights Russian/Gasprom interest in his article.
He’s also in a position through contacts and past record, quite capable of fleshing these “events” out.
I may be getting over anxious, but I doubt it…_
I am sure there are Russian/Gazprom interests in Kazakhstan. They were the same country after all. But why not mention the significant Western oil interests there? The huge Tengiz oil field is operated by Chevron and Exxon. Western interests in Kazakhstan go deeper than Blair’s sleazy PR for any well-paying dictator.
And the main Russian space port, Baikonur, is also leased from Kazakhstan. This currently is one of the only two places on Earth, from which the International Space Station can be manned and supplied. Russia won’t allow to be kicked out of there. It’s like the Black Sea fleet and Sevastopol.
Well, there ist some sort of Guaido, mentioned here: news.trust.org/item/20220107123824-knnua
“The West must pull Kazakhstan out of Moscow’s orbit or Russian President Vladimir Putin will draw the Central Asian state into “a structure like the Soviet Union”, a former minister who is now a Kazakh opposition leader [Mukhtar Ablyazov] told Reuters.”
I think there was a wee bit more than “an incoherent boiling up of rage, resulting in destruction and looting.” There were 10s of people shot dead, 100s injured, and two polis beheaded. And the shooting was still going on today. All those killings happened before the CSTO were asked in.
I think that Craig needs to comment on the additional information linked to by commenters as it seems his dismissal of both the right and the left (without any supporting information) was somewhat premature. My money is on B at Moon of Alabama and Colonel Cassad.
Kaiama
‘ The unrest will be blamed, entirely untruthfully, on Islamic terrorists and western support.’
Somebody mentioned Putin’s crimes in Chechnya. I don’t think either Russia or I would have survived without a clear conviction that in Chechnya , in Syria, In Libya, in Somalia, in Yemen USUKIS UN respectables were not playing the Great Game against Russia by recruitung and deploying Islamist Terrorists.
These people change the rules to suit themselves, like the Islamist sheikh who advised me to borrow some money to buy some land in Kurdistan, and immediately after that made another Fartwa that I had to immediately pay the money back. That’s like the US declaring that the border between Syria and Iraq was irrelevant because it was created by Winston Churchill, and then using the border as part of its own red lines of engagement. The untruthfulness of the West and its terrorist proxies is either recognised and understood , or you get scammed.
It’s not my job to tell others what to think, but I would advise assuming that every Western politician and every Islamist is lying through not just their teeth , but theough the white bones of their lying skeletons, in the name of their respective nihilistic cults. Nihilism for the rest of the world and hegemony for US and its lying Islamists. If you want to know what nihilism looks like, look at the photos of Grozny and Sirte, Mosul and Syrian refugee camps,
If you want to know what hegemony looks like , look at he films Russia took of the line of tankers driving like ants the ISIS-looted oil to Turkey for export to of all places Israel and Syria. I totally agree with Craig that the oil and mineral wealth of Kazakhstan has attracted criminals. The criminals are USUKIS and their proxies Al Qaida and ISIS. IMHO, to disagree with this is to place one’s own head in the microwave while somehow activating the ON switch. Sheep’s brains is a well-known Islamic dish.
“the line of tankers driving like ants the ISIS-looted oil to Turkey for export to of all places Israel and Syria”
Israel, not Syria. It is Syria’s oil. The whole point was for the US to starve the Syrians and defeat the Asad regime. It wouldn’t do to then sell them their own oil.
Laguerre
It may not have been the same oil that Israel sold to Assad but it did sell him some oil . Let’s face it , if the US wanted their torture rendition asset Assad gone , he would have been long gone by now and some spy from the London/ Washington nest of spies would be in charge as in Libya.
The US never intended a vacuum of power in Damascus on the edge of Europe. Erdoğan kept the traffic flowing all the way from Istanbul to Iraq as if no warcwas going on.
In Kazakhstan the rebels may be from the now radicalised sufi Naqshabandis sect who would be one of the normal denominations in that area. Britain has a long history of using one group against another. They used Sikhs against Muslims in India and then bingo they destroyed the Sikhs as well.
The report on Kazakhstan mafia in London linked to in M o A, is completely silent on who created the banking logistics for Albyasov’s bank. Those in the West who have the knowledge about Kazakhstan are never going to illuminate us about their own shady involvement in colonial exploitation.
Nor are MI6 going to enlighten us on how 20 thousand military trained and equipped jihadists suddenly arrived , as in Libya , Syria and Ukraine, to start a colour revolution in Kazakhstan.
I think there nay be a parallel between this situation and Kurdistan , where Daesh was created to enforce the colonial theft of oil when Iraqis forgot who had removed Saddam for them. The arrival of jihadists in Kazakhstan is to threaten the victims of Colonial exploitation.
In the case of Kurdistan Obama made a nassive mistake because he thought he could control his own dogs. Whereas in Kazakhstan I suspect the Western created Sufi terrorists have deep roots in the local Islamic institutions and if not properly brain-washed could join the people’s grievances against the colonial West’s ruthless exploitation .Another catastrophic mistake by the nutters in London and Washington.
“how 20 thousand military trained and equipped jihadists suddenly arrived , as in Libya , Syria and Ukraine, to start a colour revolution in Kazakhstan.”
That is going far beyond the evidence, as far as I can see. There are just some accusations that some may have been foreigners. Well, there are or were a lot of foreigners there, shipped in in Soviet times.
Laguerre
In the family of sects, one could point out that US Christianity derives from Puritanism, not Methodism , and in Islam there are also family trees which explain how ideologies are derived.
If Tokayev is from the Chishtis, theyxareca Sufi ,Dervish group that stressed asceticism and invited followers to separate themselves from the world in order to rise above God in the highest wafts of inner reality.
From that concept was born the Tablighi group which sends brothers out proselytising. Linked to that is the Taliban. So it is possible to change from the kind of brainless Sufism you find in Konya, Turkey, to brainless jihad in Afghanistan within a few generations.
By their fruit shall thee know them. My point is that Sufism has now been radicalised by Mi6 and the CIA , so it is entirely possible for a moderate Sufi Islam in the general population , or a moderate Methodist Christianity in the US , at the same time as the leaders of these same communities being rabid, kleptomaniac terrorists like Tokayev and Biden.
More evidence of how London has become the capital of money laundering and so-called reputation management for kleptocrats who plunder their own countries:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/08/how-the-kazakh-elite-put-its-wealth-into-uk-property
Nothing to see here if you are a Tory, indeed opportunities abound for personal gain.
Shocking:
“Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland, a book which investigates how illicitly gained wealth can be moved around the world, said the uprisings in Kazakhstan were linked to the uninterrupted flow of the country’s wealth into cities such as London. According to a KPMG report, 162 people control about half of Kazakhstan’s total wealth.
Bullough said: “Kazakhstan’s elite has been able to extract a vast amount of wealth and leave ordinary people with very little. And the primary enabler of that extraction has been the UK.”
“Nothing to see here if you are a Tory, indeed opportunities abound for personal gain”
luckily britain has an opposition inspired by one tony blair. ?
On CSTO deployed, here is a report in Russian language
https://pikabu.ru/story/otvet_na_post_voennosluzhashchie_rossiyskogo_kontingenta_mirotvorcheskikh_sil_odkb_pribyivayut_v_almatyi_8746526
Up to 7,300 soldiers. These can get help from Shanghai Cooperation Organisation anti-terrororist forces, and I dare hope that with help from China, India, Iran and Pakistan this crysis may be settled very soon.
In case someone is interested in new memes, I link you to Pikabu’s most funny
https://pikabu.ru/story/okh_uzh_yeti_russkie_8747066
https://pikabu.ru/story/kazakhstan_kirgizstan_i_ukraina_8747465
Hi Tatyana, many many thanks for the response (the one above, it’s impossible the reply to it directly), reassuring to hear your take on Sharij, he’s Baron’s top ‘advisor’ on things Ukrainian, also increasingly Russian, also his slicing of events related to the East is second to none, the number of subscribers confirms it, your contribution is valuable, too, ever thought of running your own blog? Your English’s perfect, the way you dissect events is rooted in common sense, on this bog there are many that listen to you, Baron included, still, it’s up to you to decide, but again, thanks for the reply, and stay away from the nasty pathogen even though it looks the virus has had enough, killed a respectable number of us, decided to take it easy, hence the Omicron offering, a sort of natural vaccine, but the over cautious authorities air keeping the fear machine running at full speed, but why?
my own blog? I think there are enough bloggers already without me 🙂 I am still a relatively young woman with a family and an exciting hobby, maybe when I become an old pensioner I will think about a blog.
I already had the honor to meet the virus 🙂 I think now I can relax for some time.
Thanks for complimenting my English! It is mostly Google-translator’s English, I just fix some grammar and check new words.
Ah, it’s important, it’s rarely mentioned in reviews as self-evident, but it’s not obvious to foreign readers – the Internet and mobile communications were disconnected in the country, but the protesters still remained with communication means, most likely mobile walkie-talkies. This is a clear sign of preparedness. Now in Kazakhstan they are investigating how it was possible to miss such a number of secretly preparing people. The head of their Kazakhstan FSB was Nazarbayev and he was dismissed by President Tokayev in the very first days. Now the deputy has been arrested and the investigation is underway.
In a hurry, Tatyana, Baron to forgot to point to a narrative published in the UK Spectator few days ago, a magazine that is supposed to be right of centre, leaning right, allegedly, he guy that penned it wrote a book on the same topic, it’s on Amazon, but what’s significant is that the piece appeared in “an organ of the MSM”, in three Continents (in the UK ie Europe, the US and Australia) total subscriptions about 150,000, readership probably 3times that number.
There are voices in the West that are beginning to realise the region’s no longer what it used to be, a change is needed, it’s not only people like Graig Murray and others on the alternative media that argue the case, others are joining in, hopefully it will also include a cooling in the the East West relations, the doomsday clock easing off, the last thing we need is another conflict, or God forbid a WW3.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/welcome-to-the-end-of-democracy
as a return courtesy, here is a link for you, Baron
https://youtu.be/kYterCt-9z8?list=FL4WhZsyJPmOPXAA6sc1yaug
it is long 3 hours stream by Putin’s propagandist 🙂 Soloviev. I don’t really like some of his attitudes, especially militaristic, though he is much more tolerable comparing to Skabeeva.
Anyway, there are a lot of officials speaking in that stream, Kazakhstan Ambassador and the like. There’s a lot of live videos from the streets in Kazakhstan. Lots of ‘raw material’ and lots of checkable facts mentioned. I believe you understand some Russian?
and a very balanced opinion by ex-prime minister of Kazakhstan
https://youtu.be/gPIS698WXXk
some precious thoughts on the inner affairs, and relations of Tokaev and Nazarbaev.
I’ve never thought about the image of Russia in the eyes of our neighbouring smaller countries! He says that during a visit to Canada, he was asked how Kazakhstan survives among the larger players. He replied: “Imagine an American and a Canadian drinking in a pub, and a Native American is quietly sitting in the corner. Some way of that.”
Is it really like that?
Thanks, Tatyana, very kind of you, Soloviev is on Baron’s watch list, the drawback of his is he goes on and on for hours, one has to have time to visit other blogs also, Baron watches pro-Kremlin as well as anti-Kremlin sources including the Navalny’s blog, Meduza, the Bell, the Znak as well as the Euromaidan Press, but thanks anyway, and yes, Baron can understand and read Russian abit.
Could you comment on the new head of MI6 and his pet project of a pan-Turkish entity of some sort in central Asia? Have you any information about jihadists transported from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, who some say were engaged in the coup or whatever it was by whichever clan instigated it?
Aha, Greenmantle rides again! The answer to all of your questions lies in Murder in Samarkand. I have sympathy for the Turkic people of Central Asia, victims of colonisation by both Russia and China as their neighbours were by Britain
Mr. Murray, is there any chance to purchase a copy of ‘Murder in Samarkand’ signed by you?
Thank you for the reference. I will follow it up. Does sympathy for the Turkic people extend to approval of MI6 meddling (if that is what its new head intends)? Thanks again.
That is a rather naïve account of history. There is no need for a CIA today, Soros and the like are quite sufficient…
And if one comes to me with “authoritarian dictatorship” – a classic pleonasm – part of a conceptual fund of the “liberals”….
With such and similar platitudes, one moves in exactly the vulgar-liberalistic corridors of thought that are considered accepted and permissible in the so-called free West.
Incidentally, Turkey is also really pissed off about the CSTO – I wonder why?
If you read the Russian press, you know about it …
Good piece on this story today in moon of alabama:
Mysteries Of The Failed Rebellion In Kazakhstan
It is still a mystery what forces exactly are behind the rebellion in Kazakhstan. While I had presumed that it was a CIA operation it may have been outsourced to Britain’s MI6. There are also still other possibilities.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/01/mysteries-of-the-failed-rebellion-in-kazakhstan.html#more
Very interesting account of events from an eye witness to the riots:
https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2022/01/09/kazakhstan-an-eyewitness-to-the-uprising-in-almaty/
This text doesn’t belong to an eyewitness, there’s a special reservation about it in the very beginning. What they say ‘circulating in Russian-language social media’ appears to be an Ukrainian website and a Facebook page.
This text is spinned by Babchenko, who himself confessed his paid job is smearing Russia, currently Babchenko resides in Israel.
Just to let you know what sort of info you are spreading.
Thanks, Tatyana, you can interpret these things much better than me, so very useful to know. Just goes to show the amount of disinformation around makes it very hard to know for sure what is going on. This was passed on by someone I normally trust, so i guess they were fooled too. Of course it raises the question of who can you trust?
And of course part of the technique of disinformation, as promoted by Trump and Bannon, is to do exactly that – flood the zone with sh*t, in their words, so that nobody knows who to believe. The result being that no sources are trusted, and manipulators like them can prosper, with their brazen lies. Lies and truth are simply a choice of opinion, fuelled by rhetoric and social media. If you have good sources from Khazakstan, let us know.
Ian, I suggest we should listen to those who are responsible for their every word, responsible for the very smallest letter and the very slightest shade of sense. Like officials of Kazakhstan, like officials of the Russian state, like the UN. They are responsible for every act taken there, and they must address every question asked. None but them, as they are the only meaningful actors now.
If the events go worse, then we know who is to blame.
Whatever a willager John might think of his own opinions, sorry for a diminutive, I’m just in the same willager bunch, opinions of people who are not directly responsible – are just a dust in the wind.
Circulated by Mr NATO Paul Mason, say no more.
This is Interesting – What a Web it is –
There are now confirmed reports that Kazakhstan’s former intelligence chief, Karim Masimov, has been
arrested on suspicion of high treason, the country’s National Security Committee announced yesterday. Masmiov also served as Prime Minister of the country from 2007-2012 and 2014-2016, and was regarded as a close ally to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
According to emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop, the President Joe Biden’s wayward son referred to Kazak spy chief Massimov as a “close friend.” Both Joe and Hunter have also met with Masimov
NOTE: Karim Massimov was also former Kazak hardman President Nazarbayev’s righthand man – during the same period in which former the President was involved with none other than Tony Blair who arranged for his one-time ‘director of political operations’ John McTernan to be given a hugely lucrative three-month contract in Kazakhstan as senior adviser to dictator Nazarbayev’s regime.
JANUARY 9, 2022 BY NEWS WIRE
https://21stcenturywire.com/2022/01/09/former-kazakhstan-intelligence-chief-and-close-friend-of-bidens-arrested-for-treason/
It looks to me that one of the main, or the main, consequences is the final dethroning of Nazarbayev, after thirty years. He remained in power behind the throne under Tokaev after stepping down in 2019, and it is his people who are now being thrown out, apart from himself losing his role in the security apparatus. Was this the main intended purpose? MoA is thinking along these lines, though not entirely, but it’s difficult to get people to stop thinking in conspiratorial lines of US/UK manipulations.
I’m afraid now folks start mixing Kasakhs and Cossaks, and the whole case turns out a mess!
I respect Craig’s assessment but It sounds more like a coup (organised across this huge country) rather than just spontaneous protest to me. I would avoid any articles from the Guardian newspaper @Ian on this. The timing is the significant element
“The narrative on the right is that Putin is looking to annex Kazakhstan, or at least the majority ethnic Russian areas in the north. This is utter nonsense.
The narrative on the left is that the CIA is attempting to instigate another colour revolution and put a puppet regime into Nur-Sultan (as the capital is called this week). This also is utter nonsense.”
Well it looks a bit too well organised and violent to be a spontaneous protest about price rises, so who is doing the organising? How long is the list of suspects?
One of the instigators of the violence after the protests in Kazakstan, who was the leader of a criminal group, Arman Dzjumageldijev, with the epithet “the wild one”, has been arrested by the security-forces for having instigated riots
The link shows him making the sign of the grey wolfes
https://www.nyhetsbanken.se/2022/01/vad-ligger-bakom-upproret-i-kazakstan.html
The article refers to Lenta.ru etc but I was not able to find the original.
moonofalabama also gives a link to twitter about it but a notification turned up about ‘you don have the owners permission to see this twitter’.
Basically grey wolfes are associated with the Cia and Nato since the 70s but perhaps it was intended to saw division between Turkey and Russia in this particular case.
Since Britain’s MI6 boss Richard Moore has claimed that they influence Turkey for the panturkish agenda it looks like Britain also wants us to think in such terms.
https://journal-neo.org/2022/01/06/british-intelligence-intensifies-its-struggle-against-russia-and-china-in-central-asia/
Panturkism was Oxford orientalist Bernard Lewis’ old plan so it has a genuine british signature but would Britain so willingly point it out now, when they want us to think in terms of people ‘striving for democracy’?
I am going down the road that this was an internal Kazakhstan fight between thieves. I am thrown somewhat by all the unusual names bandied about, but it seems one gang tried a coup and ended up on the losing side…….at least that’s what the ‘nice person from the Kazakhstan government’ who of course I can trust, is telling me. ?
If you enter *Kazakhstan’s former intelligence chief arrested on suspicion of treason Financial Times* in the top bar you can get the article via your search engine for a one off free read.
https://www.ft.com/content/3ac83202-1170-4b60-89f8-5e25549ddab3
”Kazakhstan’s former intelligence chief has been arrested on suspicion of treason, as the government seeks to restore order following violent protests that have left government buildings destroyed and dozens dead in the former Soviet country.
The detention of Karim Massimov was announced on Saturday by KNB, the National Security Committee that he had headed until Wednesday, when he was fired by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The move suggests that street protests, which began last weekend over rising fuel prices, triggered a power struggle between Tokayev and his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s long-serving first post-Soviet president.”
It does seem that this event has been put to bed…_
This link furthers info on Massimov. Doesn’t clear up if he is being singled out or stitched up. But he definitely seems out of favour, or luck…_
https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/former-security-chief-massimov-arrested-on-treason-charges-in-kazakhstan/
The right are not that stupid, Craig. Their narrative is that events in Kazakhstan were an “unwelcome distraction” for Putin, who was just going to invade Ukraine. Sort of as the coup in Yugoslavia distracted Hitler before Operation Barbarossa. These words, “unwelcome distraction”, is copy-pasted in almost all American news media.
The Saker has an interesting article on the issue. There are also comments by Dmitri Orlov in the comment section.
https://thesaker.is/who-lost-kazakhstan-and-to-whom/
This was clearly a desperate effort by the US/NATO to enable them to gain the upper hand at the current Russia/US talks. It has failed. I believe Craig was incorrect in his analysis. This was clearly not a spontaneous insurrection. It was another effort at a destructive colour revolution.
Sir John Sawyers has just said on Radio 4 that
1/ Russia has no right stop the West’s [ expansion ] into Europe.
2/ Kazakhstan is a brittle, authoritarian country.
What he didn’t say was that Russia has every right to hold the West to previous agreements which they have continually broken, and that the advantage of brittle authoritarian countries was that the Pimps at the top like Albysov were able to sign over the entire mineral and oil of their countries for a pittance to the West.
It would have better for him to have kept his silly mouth shut, than threaten Russia on breakfast radio and mock his colonies like a colonel in the British Raj. imho
A different perspective to Craig’s. Plenty of references.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/01/mysteries-of-the-failed-rebellion-in-kazakhstan.html#more
You’re a bit late to the party, Ian B. Exactly the same link was already posted on this thread by Phil Espin (8th Jan, 9pm), Gary Littlejohn (8th, 10pm), Stevie Boy (9th, 1pm) and petergrfstrm (10th, 8am). Each seemed to think they were the first.
Does nobody read the earlier comments before posting?
In the MoA article they say:
“an order was given to remove the security cordon around the airport at Almaty just 40 minutes before protesters occupied it”
Another question was asked by president Tokaev is:
How was it possible, that the peaceful protesters in AlmaAta were able to occupy the KNB building? Including access to the armory storage room???
KNB is Kazakhstan National Security. I cannot imagine protesters armed with stones could do that.
Tatyana
Not every public building of an unpopular government is occupied. Dictators expect trouble from the populace and from rivals at any time.
Or, as was explained to me in Pakistan, the bus from Pershawar to Lahore will stop at the bus top in between, providing you go to Peshawar one hour and one hour back and encourage the driver to stop there to pick up your friends.
The building that is occupied will be properly guarded at all times.
‘In the MoA article they say:
‘“an order was given to remove the security cordon around the airport at Almaty just 40 minutes before protesters occupied it”’.
For some reason that reminds me of the US Capitol on January 6th.