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bne February 2022 Kazakhstan I Special focus I 55
what belongs to them, to provide help systemically. The government must look into such companies to define what their contributions to the For Kazakhstan's People Fund should be."
The nation's oligarchs had caused “seri- ously restricted development of the free market and dented the country’s competitive edge”, Tokayev, a former diplomat and technocrat known for not having become much involved in busi- ness during his career, added.
The new prime minister has been ordered by Tokayev to secure “additional revenue” from oil and mineral-rich Kazakhstan's mining companies and present a government programme for the year within three weeks, Tokayev said. Gasoline producers, he also stated, must pay higher excise duties without introducing price hikes to consumers.
Poured scorn
Tokayev also poured scorn on the state- owned Development Bank of Kazakh- stan. He told MPs that it “has essentially turned into a personal bank to serve a circle of persons” representing financial,
industrial and construction groups. “We know everyone by name,” he said.
Handing out further orders, he told prosecutors and the finance ministry
to overhaul the “real mess” in customs services. The state, he complained, was losing tens of billions of tenge in unpaid duties. Some operators, he said, were seen as “untouchable.”
As analysts looked for Tokayev moves that would directly target people around Nazarbayev, the government received orders from the president to shut down operations of Operator ROP, a major disposal and recycling company that many in Kazakhstan say is connected to Nazarbayev's youngest daughter, Alia Nazarbayeva.
Not a word
Nazarbayev, 81, has not said a word in public since the Kazakhstan crisis begun, though his spokesman has claimed he remains in the capital, Nur-Sultan, and wants the country to unite around the Tokayev administration.
“Tokayev’s speech doesn’t change the
overall reform direction,” Tom Adshead, director of research at Moscow-based consultancy Macro Advisory, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg, adding: “What he’s looking for is some demonstrative populist measures against elites who made money under Nazarbayev.”
The presidential decree appointing
a new government detailed how the interior minister, defence minister and foreign minister have retained their posts, unlike the ministers of information, justice, health, industry, economy, culture, finance and energy who have been replaced.
The Interior Ministry said on January 11 that security forces have so far detained 9,900 people in connection with the unrest.
Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the UN's special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said in a statement that Kazakhstan's overly broad use of the term "terrorism" to describe protesters, civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists and political parties "appeared aimed at instilling fear and was deeply concerning".
CSTO comes out of the shadows for the first time
bne IntelliNews
Soldiers from the Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are reported to have arrived in Kazakhstan to help defend President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev against violent protests that have shaken his authoritarian regime.
"Russia’s military units of the Airborne forces have joined the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces. Currently, the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ military and transport aviation are sending Russian units of the peacekeeping contingent to the Republic of Kazakhstan," a CSTO statement said.
The forces would be engaged in “the protection of important state and
military facilities, assistance to the forces of law and order of the Republic of Kazakhstan in stabilising the situation and returning it to the legal order”.
Soldiers from the CSTO’s other members – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – are also expected to take part. According to Armenian news reports, 70 soldiers will be sent.
There have already been reports that Russian special forces participated
in an operation to retake control of
the airport in Almaty that was briefly captured by the protesters on January 5.
As the rioting intensified on January 5, President Tokayev had appealed
for military help "to help Kazakhstan overcome this terrorist threat".
For the first time in its 30-year history the CSTO immediately agreed to send “peacekeepers” and the next day troops had already begun arriving.
“In light of the threats to national security and sovereignty to the Republic
of Kazakhstan, including from external interference,” the CSTO would send peacekeepers “for a limited period of time with the aim of stabilising and normalising the situation,” wrote Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the CSTO’s current head, on Facebook. Pashinian added that there were "dangers threatening Kazakhstan's national security
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