Page 56 - bne magazine February 2024_20240206

56 I Eurasia bne February 2024
Tokayev issued a shoot-to-kill order as violent elements among the protesting crowds wrought destruction across Almaty and other locations. / Ilya Varlamov.
Tokayev for first time discusses power struggle said to lie behind Kazakhstan’s “Bloody January”
bne IntelIiNews
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has for the first time elaborated on some of the unresolved details of the January 2022 unrest, known in Kazakhstan as the "Bloody January" events.
While attributing the eruption of
public anger seen in Bloody January to longstanding socio-economic issues that had accumulated over the years, Tokayev – in a lengthy interview with Kazakh state-run newspaper Egemen Qazaqstan – also suggested that the unrest was instigated by "influential individuals" who were displeased with the changes in the country's political landscape following his appointment as acting president by predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2019.
www.bne.eu
Tokayev, who was subsequently
elected president later that year,
noted that these unnamed individuals perceived the changes as a threat to
the established power structures after three decades of Nazarbayev rule and aimed to revert to the previous situation that was more favourable to them. He alleged that this group of high-ranking officials held considerable sway over the
power structures of the oil-rich country as well as criminal elements and sought to seize power by force.
The comments made by Tokayev mark the first time he has frankly admitted that he concedes there was a power struggle behind the political unrest. Previously, he has blamed the events on “terrorists”. In the interview, he also specifically focused
“Tokayev suggested that the unrest was instigated by "influential individuals" who were displeased with the changes in the country's political landscape after his appointment as acting president”