President Tokayev appointed Alikhan Smaïlov Prime Minister, while the vast Central Asian country was shaken by riots repressed in the blood.
Le Monde with AFP.
He had appealed to Moscow on Thursday while his country was prey to chaos and had sacked his government to a vain attempt at appeasement. President Kazakh, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced Tuesday 11 January that the troops deployed by Russia would withdraw from this week. Sharing a return to normal, he also appointed a new Prime Minister while this vast Central Asian country was shaken last week by violence ever seen since its independence, in 1991. They did dozens. Deaths and hundreds of wounded, pushed to the deployment of a regional military force driven by Russia and brought to the arrest of thousands of people.
The riots are described as “terrorist” aggression by the authorities, who, however, have not provided concrete evidence in this direction. They had erupted in the framework of events against the rise in fuel prices, on the bottom of degradation of the standard of living and endemic corruption in this former Soviet Republic.
“The main mission of the peacekeeping forces (…) ended successfully,” said Takayev. The gradual withdrawal of the unified quota of the [Collective Security Treaty Organization, OTSC] will begin In two days. This process will not take more than ten days. “These soldiers, mainly Russians, have been deployed unpublished in the context of this military alliance of former Soviet republics, placed under the leadership of Moscow. According to President Kazakh, this force consists of 2,030 military. Monday, his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had confirmed that the troops were there “for a limited period”.
The Kazakh power has, moreover, carried out mass arrests in this authoritarian country without tolerated political opposition. Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior reported that nearly 10,000 people had been arrested. No precise human assessment of the disorders has been provided. The most serious violence took place in the economic capital, Almaty, where many public buildings were ransacked and the busy businesses while Emutiers and law enforcement were opposed in armed clashes.
Front attack against the “father of the nation”
Sign of a return to normal, Kazakh deputies confirmed the appointment of a new Prime Minister, Alikhan Smaïlov, after the resignation of the government last week. Mr. Smaïlov, 49, former Minister of Finance, has also been an assistant for the former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led Kazakhstan for three decades until 2019. During the disorders, protesters had chanted their anger against Former 81-year-old officer.
“President Tokayev, for his part, launched a frontal attack against his political father Tuesday, accusing him of having favored the emergence of a” caste “having granted the riches of that country full of hydrocarbons, An unprecedented criticism with regard to the one who is considered the “father of the nation” and benefit of the cult of personality.
“Because of the first president, the Elbasy [” father of the nation “], a caste of very profitable companies, very rich people, appeared in the country. I think the time has come to pay a tribe. To the people of Kazakhstan, “said the one who made his whole political career in the shadow of Mr. Nazarbayev, while girls, Gendres, grandchildren and other relatives of the former head of state control posts and very important economic interests.
One of the weight allies of Mr. Nazarbayev, Karim Massimov, was arrested Saturday for high treason after being limited from the head of secret services. If the social tensions and struggles within power are very real, Mr. Tokayev nevertheless judges that the riots were a “attempted attempt” by foreign “terrorists”. He received support, as such, from Mr. Putin.