Kazakh President Tokayev spoke to the country this morning. As usual, he did so only in Russian, without using any words in the Kazakh language, the language of two thirds of the population. He identified those responsible for the crisis in the "so-called free media" and "foreign figures" to be complicit in the so-called crimes in Kazakhstan: what happened in Almaty alone was the work of "20 thousand bandits". For this, he has given orders to open fire to kill without warning on anyone found on the street. Not surprisingly, in many cities, civilians have been warned via loudspeakers to remain barricaded in homes.
We seem to hear the echo of Muhammar Gaddafi's words in March 2011, when at the beginning of the first Libyan civil war he asked to track down the rebels house by house, calling them "rats" and "cockroaches" in the service of France and the United Kingdom. But, his goodness, at least he offered to save the lives of those who had laid down their arms. How it ended, you all know ...
The attack on the press is not surprising: from Tony Blair to Angelino Alfano, the post-Soviet regime in power since 1991 is used to having good offices in the West, certainly not hearing criticism.
Meanwhile, officially, 3.706 rioters are detained in Kazakhstan. Twenty men in camouflage attempted to attack Taldykorgran prison, with two casualties.
Thousands of people peacefully demonstrated with flags of Kazakhstan in Zhanaozen.
Continue the deployment of the force of peace keeping CSTO. The Armenian military also left for Kazakhstan as part of the CSTO mission. "We expect that if Armenia finds itself in such a situation, it will receive help" Armenian Security Council Secretary Grigoryan said. Our thoughts turn to velvet revolution, of 2018, but also to the failed coup of a year ago: evidently, Yerevan fears that the contagion of the example of the Kazakhs, also in light of the inglorious epilogue of the conflict with Azerbaijan in 2020.
Photo: presidential archive of the republic of Kazakhstan
