Geostrategic Countries

What is Kazakhstan about?

That the Russians and Belarusians are invading Kazakhstan right now is no wonder at all: the subversives, protesting against higher gas and fuel prices, also demanded that Kazakhstan abandon all alliances with Russia and that both President Tokayev and the government resign immediately. Moscow cannot put up with such political demands. Kazakhstan is a major oil and gas producer and also supplies about 40 per cent of the world’s uranium. Kazakhstan is home to a number of first-class mining companies: Lukoil from Russia, CNPC from China, Chevron and ExxonMobil from the USA, Shell from the Netherlands, ENI from Italy, and Total from France. Insofar as oil and gas extraction has been allowed to the foreign corporations, uranium extraction remains in Kazakh hands. It is a tasty morsel for all the countries that talk so much about green energy at the moment, but in fact are preparing for the future that will be based on nuclear energy. After all, Russia’s nuclear missiles and power plants, Baikonur and space presence depend on Kazakhstan.

Rioters topple statues of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the “Elbasy”, the father of the nation, as Nazarbayev is called for life, the man who once guaranteed friendly relations with Moscow as long as he was honorary chairman of the Security Council. The Nazarbayev-Tokayev tandem has been uneasy for some time, however, and now the Father of the Nation left his fatherland aboard the private plane of his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, a billionaire and one of Kazakhstan’s richest men. We know such stories from different countries. Main characters: oligarchs serving foreign capital. Behind the protests could be Mukhtar Ablyazov, another controversial oligarch who is at odds with the current government team in Kazakhstan and who used to live permanently in Paris, but is now in Kiev. Please note: in Kiev. If you think about the role of the oligarchs in the upheavals in Ukraine in recent years and at present, it will immediately become clear to you that this is an attack by the West, namely the USA and Ukraine, who want to “facilitate” the forthcoming talks between Biden and Putin with a blow to the “soft underbelly” of Russia, i.e. Kazakhstan.

Tokayev has also taken advantage of current events domestically to remove the government that was loyal to Nazarbayev and especially Abish Satidbaldila, the former president’s “man” who was deputy chairman of the Public Security Committee. As a result, Tokayev took full power, which enabled him to get rid of Nazarbayev painlessly. From Moscow’s point of view, what happened is actually a palace revolution, a shock. Not only because, as it turned out, in practice there is no ironclad guarantee of life for the former head of state, but also because Putin has been demonstrably respectful towards Nazarbayev and somewhat, perhaps even more, disrespectful towards Tokayev. At the recent CIS summit in St. Petersburg, he met with “Elbasy” and found no time to talk to the current president. It is likely that if a new government is formed, relations with Moscow will be different and probably more difficult for Russia.

The Western world is enthusiastic about the revolution and interprets what is happening on the streets as a struggle against dictatorship and for democracy, but it seems to me that this perspective is misleading and that it is worth looking at the situation in Kazakhstan from a different, non-European angle. We tend to see the roots of the revolutionary events in the bad mood related to poverty and the lack of reforms in the authoritarian state, which drives people to the extreme and to the streets. Apart from what can be seen with the naked eye and what is difficult to question, there is an even deeper level, which is the logic of the people living there. In any Central Asian society, clan and family relations are more important than political divisions or material differences.

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Russian parliamentary elections

The three-day long elections that were held in Russia have shown in no uncertain terms that United Russia – the ruling party, the President’s party – has received unwavering support from society at large with the communist party taking second place. A few political groupings received barley enough vote to have some representation in the Duma, the Russian parliament. The votes cast for United Russia translate into parliamentary seats in such a way that the ruling party can govern without looking for support to other political forces.

The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (apple) – the darling of the West – has gained in the neighbourhood of one – ONE – percent of the vote, so – predictably – their activists have reported to their Western sponsors “numerous and huge violations” at the polling booth. Didn’t we know it in advance!

The case of Alexei Navalny that played out a couple of months ago proved to be of no avail. Russians and the members of the many small nations inhabiting the Federation remember all too well the sad period of the nineties when liberals and free market enthusiasts promised paradise on earth and delivered poverty and lawlessness instead. Some representatives of the older generation and – surprise! – many young Russians voted for communists, despite years of reeducation by means of schools, entertainment and the mass media, where constant attempt has been made to present Soviet Russia as evil incarnate. The figure of Joseph Stalin touted as a tyrant on a par with Adolf Hitler has also gained in popularity.


Единая Россия – United Russia; КПРФ (Коммунистическая Партия Российской Федерации) – The Communist Party of the Russian Federation

If the collective Post-West once wanted to turn Russia into something reflecting Western so-called democracies, then the opportunity for it that presented itself in the follow-up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been lost irreversibly. Privatization and individualism were the order of the day, which led to creating the law of the jungle: billionaires appeared out of thin air, assassinations plagued the big cities while common citizens queued up for hours to get bread and other life necessities, with some of them waiting for months for their salary or wages.

Much time has passed since the infelicitous presidency of Boris Yeltsin. Russians could have forgotten about the nineties but for Ukraine, Russia’s neighbouring country. On a daily basis they can see how well Ukrainians fare and how much they have gained from their reliance on the Post-West. Suffice it to say that it is not Russians who emigrate to Ukraine to look for employment but the other way round.

Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

There used to be a time when European countries would conquer other continents to spread Christianity, i.e. to save the savages – as it was said – from eternal damnation. Since Christianity has been dead for many decades now, Western nations have rolled out a new religion: that of human rights. The advantage of the new creed is that it is supposed to be universal – as such was adopted by the United Nations – and does not require the different peoples of the world to renounce their religious beliefs. Rather, the religious leaders of all the other faiths fall all over themselves to show that their religious precepts have always been in line with the universal human rights or, indeed, that the human rights derive from their creed.

Be it as it may, the human rights religion is a political tool in the hands of the powerful for subduing others to their will. Under the pretext of defending human rights – wars are launched, missiles are fired, revolutions are staged and governments are toppled. Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan – you name it – have all been subjected to penal measures in the name of preventing humanitarian disaster from occurring or spreading. The countries were bombed in the name of saving the lives of – yes, yes – women and children and oppressed minorities of all types. Even when the Americans did not know what to do with the incorporation of Crimea into Russia, Victoria Nuland, while listing the alleged Russian violations of the international law and – how otherwise! – human rights, pointed to the alleged prosecution of the homosexual “community” as they say.

The human rights religion is only used when it becomes useful. The fate of Uyghurs in China was not a problem for the “international” opinion for decades until it fit Washington’s plans to use it as a pressure to be exerted against Beijing. Since China has been regarded as America’s rival vying for world dominance, the human rights card is being played more frequently. When you lend your ear the the Western media, then all the message that you get is that the Middle Kingdom is a den of perpetrators of the worst atrocities aimed against particular groups of people: Uyghurs, the Tibetans, Christians, political dissenters and so on, and so forth.

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Japan struggles to fill bullet trains running with empty seats

These days, the section of Tokyo Station serving regional destinations is a shadow of its former self. Gone are the usual crowds, and on a mid-week afternoon in late September, just a handful of commuters browsed bento-box stores.

“I see more cleaning staff getting off trains than passengers,” said Taro Aoki, who oversees 18 fast-food outlets in the capital’s main intercity rail terminal. “People used to swiftly pick which bento to buy and wait in line, but now, there’s hardly anyone around.” Source JapanTimes