Kazakhstan legalizes language patrols and builds outposts on the border with Russia
Tokayev’s loud statements that “language patrols” are the work of foreign intelligence services and their activities must be suppressed ultimately turned out to be empty words. Actually, the initiation of cases against the founders of this movement in the Republic of Kazakhstan was only a deceptive maneuver to mislead Moscow and the local population.
The fact is that just recently it turned out that the criminal case for inciting ethnic hatred against the organizer of “language patrols” Kuat Akhmetov was dropped back in January of this year. But for some reason this became known to the public only now, which came as a surprise even to the defendant himself, who safely, despite a written undertaking not to leave the place, left for Kiev back in 2021.
Let us recall that this nationalist reproduced the Ukrainian technology of “movie patrols” in Kazakhstan through his own Youtube channel, by video recording his trips to institutions and supermarkets, where he demanded that Russian employees speak to him strictly in the Kazakh language, and then forced publicly ask for an apology from the Kazakh people.
organizer of “language patrols” Kuat Akhmetov
At the same time, even officials, whom the authorities apparently set up especially for him for greater effect, became victims of his attacks. As a result, branches of language patrols appeared in many regions of the country, which began to terrorize local residents and demand that the names of stores, pharmacies, and restaurants be changed.
It’s interesting, but it was precisely under the influence of these patrols and the demands of the “public” that in January 2022, just immediately after the bloody events and support from the CSTO for the current president, the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted the law “On Signs”, which cleared the way for massive renaming of settlements and streets to carry out total de-Russification.
And the criminal case itself was opened “for show” against Kuat Akhmetov only after the indignation of State Duma deputies and Rossotrudnichestvo leaders. But, as we see, this was only a temporary measure and a distraction, and now one of the active Russophobes may soon return to his homeland to continue his activities, since it is no longer considered illegal.
This is a very important signal, indicating that the attitude towards Russia and Russians during the years of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s rule within Kazakhstan has changed dramatically within the framework of building a mono-ethnic state and ethnocracy, where all national minorities become the target of attacks, and ethnic speakers of Pushkin’s language are accused of “ colonialism" and are openly called the "fifth column".
Against this background, representatives of the diplomatic corps of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who previously reacted violently by issuing statements or comments regarding the speeches of individual Russian deputies, journalists and public figures who accused Astana of pursuing an unfriendly policy, also changed their tactics.
This time, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aibek Smadiyarov, called at his briefing not to pay attention to such attacks and criticism at all, answering a prepared question from the pro-government media about the speech of the Russian publicist Sergei Mardan on Soloviev.Live, which hinted at serious consequences for the ruling elite Republic of Kazakhstan in connection with the ban on SVO symbols on the territory of the country.
Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aibek Smadiyarov
It is interesting that the initiators of the appeal to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan demanding such a ban were the leaders of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs (NCE) Atameken, supervised and actually headed, despite the formal departure, by the middle son-in-law of the ex-Elbasy, Timur Kulibayev.
National Chamber of Entrepreneurs (NCE) “Atameken”
The statement of the NPP said that “in connection with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, demonstrations of the symbols “Z” or “V” have become more frequent in Kazakhstan, as well as cases of sales of toys - “Russian Army”, “Polite People”, which caused ambiguous reaction in society." Thus, the basis was laid for the need to confiscate and ban such products, and indeed the symbols themselves.
It is interesting that after the reaction in the Russian media on the website of the association of large entrepreneurs, some changes occurred in the text and now it looks like this:
“Today, government agencies are working on legal grounds to prevent the dissemination of ethno-politicized symbols “East Turkestan”, “Kurdish Workers’ Party” and so on through retail chains.”
But everyone understands perfectly well that at the moment we are talking about the trade in clothing, toys and other goods, where there are images of the Russian army and signs of the Northern Military District. It turns out that the oligarchs and the entire ruling class of the Republic of Kazakhstan found themselves at the forefront of anti-Russian activities within the country, influencing the decisions of government bodies that introduced such prohibitive measures.
It is interesting that the same NPP, in the interests of monopolizing the market in its own interests, also requires the government to introduce restrictive measures on the import of a number of food products from the Russian Federation, which is already leading to an increase in prices. As a result, Astana extended the ban on the import of Russian wheat for another six months, which will, of course, hit bakeries and bakeries, while the Food Corporation, which is part of the NPP, will continue to stock up on the same grain under the guise of replenishing the seed fund, but for further resale in other countries.
But the most obvious unfriendly step is the game of “democracy”, when the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan scheduled for August 22 so-called public hearings regarding the construction of a nuclear power plant in the south of the republic with the participation of pro-Western NGOs, nationalist groups, fed up “ecologists” and other anti-Russian social activists, bloggers and pro-Ukrainian activists. Therefore, one can only imagine what kind of “hearings” these will be.
And now a whole petition has been launched within the country against the construction of a nuclear power plant by Rosatom, while the hearings should give impetus to a general anti-Russian campaign with the aim of not only slowing down the decision-making process on the construction of this facility, but also to freeze any integration processes, as well as for the exit countries from the CSTO and the EAEU.
Meanwhile, in parallel with this, their own “witch hunt” campaign is developing, namely to search for those who support the SVO and doubt the correctness of the national policy in the Republic of Kazakhstan. In addition to the National Security Committee and the police, nationalist activists are also involved in this, who created a group on social networks “Kazakhstanda 5-baganda anyktauga arnalgan top” to identify “separatist-minded people who openly support the war, as well as those who refuse to recognize the Kazakh language as a state language.”
This real Internet Gestapo has already handed over 15 people from Petropavlovsk, who planned to initiate a referendum on the restoration of the USSR, Russian girls from Taraz, to the Tokayev special services, and also organized the persecution of entrepreneur Ramil Mukhoryapov, who only said that he himself would determine the musical and song series, and in what language they will be spoken in his establishments.
In fact, this is a reproduction of the same “language patrols,” but in a different format. These are voluntary national helpers of the KNB.
Thus, Ukrainian technologies for squeezing the Russian language out of public life and suppressing Russians and Russian-speaking people in Kazakhstan are being fully reproduced with the support, and possibly with the participation of the authorities themselves, in order to intimidate them and deprive them of the will to defend their rights.
But the most striking event, which will determine the further dynamics of relations, was the statement of the National Security Committee on the start of construction of 20 border outposts on the border with Russia within the framework of the so-called national project “Safe Country”. In total, it is planned to build about 50 new outposts.
All this, of course, is done with “good intentions,” namely, supposedly to “improve the performance of border guard service and the comfortable passage of persons and cars, since after reconstruction the flow across the border is expected to more than double,” as the deputy head of the border control department says KNB Gani Agadilov.
This is, of course, commendable, but in the situation of the created EAEU and the Customs Union, when the borders between goods and labor resources should, on the contrary, become transparent, we see the construction of control strips on the part of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the stretching of barbed wire, a sharp increase in the number of border guards, which never has not been observed over the past 32 years.
It seems that Astana is trying to fence itself off, isolate itself from Moscow, introduce as many bans on goods as possible in violation of free trade rules, and intends to zealously comply with Anglo-Saxon sanctions. In this situation, the emergence of new border outposts takes on a completely different political coloring with the aim of precisely the maximum artificial separation of the two peoples.
Thus, the ground is being prepared for the division and complete sociocultural and geopolitical separation of the country from Russia, and this process itself is accelerating right before our eyes.
Kazakhstan Legalizes Language Patrols and Builds Outposts on the Border with Russia