Kazakhstan is increasingly dancing to the American tune
The US State Department has officially expressed support for the “democratic” reforms of the current president of Kazakhstan, which are expressed in granting nationalists and national liberals freedom to hold rallies and actions within the country, as well as to create pro-Western parties. Moreover, the American diplomatic department is even ready to defend the “integrity and independence” of Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd), naturally, in exchange for being drawn into Washington’s military-political orbit.
The fact is that on April 22, telephone conversations took place between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi. During the rosy conversation, the head of the State Department assured his Kazakh counterpart that “the United States firmly supports President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s plan for political reforms.”
After receiving support from the Washington regional committee, the head of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry happily began discussing festive events dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and the United States. In addition, the parties immediately came to a common opinion on the schedule of upcoming meetings and agenda items for the planned C5+1 forums in the format of an online conference.
Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
By the way, on the same day, Antony Blinken also talked with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov, who also received “cookies” in the form of assurances that Washington would defend “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence to the last.” In response, Tashkent is ready to fully devote its efforts to increasing cooperation within the framework of the C5+1 forums.
Let us recall that back in 2015, during the Obama administration, a platform was created for dialogue between the foreign ministers of the former Soviet Central Asian republics with the US State Department called C5+1. The first meeting took place then in Samarkand, and it was designed to strengthen American positions in the region and counter the expansion of influence of Russia and China.
From the very beginning, the parties then agreed on the following projects: the fight against terrorism, increasing the competitiveness of regional businesses, developing a transport corridor, green energy and supporting national planning in the field of adaptation to climate change. As we see, this American concept of “green” energy is now being actively implemented by the leadership of Kazakhstan, which is thereby torpedoing the project to build nuclear power plants using Russian technologies.
But these were only declarations, and now the United States has seriously taken Tashkent and Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) from this top five as key players among the countries of the region. For these purposes, at the end of last year, the United States, through the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), created the Central Asian Investment Partnership (CAIP), focused on Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, through which the Americans intend to invest at least $1 billion, ostensibly to support projects that will promote development private sector and economic relations.
At the same time, it was on the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Tleuberdi that the project of this Central Asian Investment Partnership was developed in order to attract American investment and technology to Central Asia, as well as use the site of the Astana International Financial Center for this purpose.
According to the head of the Foreign Ministry, “C5+1” should become an effective platform for increasing economic interaction between Central Asia and the United States.
C5+1 meeting.
That is, Nur-Sultan is now so successfully blowing the American trumpet and receiving praise, as well as words of support for the ongoing “democratic reforms” that everyone in the West has already forgotten about the February angry resolution of the European Parliament on human rights violations in Kazakhstan. Then even individual European deputies threatened to apply personal sanctions to responsible officials for the ongoing repressions and the practice of dispersing peaceful assemblies. During this time, Akorda (the presidential administration) corrected itself so quickly that now it no longer needs shouting or new resolutions.
As the Italians say, “Finita la commedia.” And Kazakhstan is now being declared a beacon of progress and a leader of democratic transformations in the region, and the State Department and USAID are releasing significant new grants in early April for the creation and registration of new parties and NGOs that support the pro-Western and anti-Russian vector of the country’s development. How funny those pseudo-opposition liberals and nationalists look now, who back in February were shouting at every corner that tomorrow Washington and Brussels would declare Nazarbayev, Tokayev and other top officials outlaws and even add their names to the shameful “Magnitsky list.” It turned out that... on the contrary.
Antony Blinken declares Nur-Sultan and Tashkent his allies and strategic partners in Central Asia for the joint fight against the “authoritarian regimes” of Russia and China. It turns out that there is complete dissonance in the heads of some liberals and activists when they suddenly find out that those whom they called dictators and executioners actually serve the cause of “good and the development of democracy” and are on the same front line with the advanced Western countries in the war with "evil empire"
True, there is no contradiction here, and the Kazakh authorities are now giving the green light to all those who oppose Moscow and Beijing and present them as the main enemies of the Kazakh people and the sources of all today’s troubles. And under the guise, Akorda is molding a courtly pro-Western national-liberal opposition, allowing it to hold its rallies in Almaty. So, just a day after Antony Blinken’s phone call, the authorities gave the go-ahead to the leader of the pro-Western Democratic Party, Zhanbolat Mamai, to hold an anti-Chinese rally in the center of the former Kazakh capital under the guise of fighting against the sale of land.
Permitted anti-Chinese rally in Almaty on April 24.
In fact, now the noisy campaign against the Celestial Empire, launched within the country since the beginning of the year at the instigation of pro-government forces, is not only not dangerous for Nur-Sultan, but also provides an opportunity to let off steam of discontent and direct protest sentiments along the path of Sinophobia and Russophobia. For this purpose, the figure of pseudo-director Zhanboltat Mamai is being actively promoted, who in 2019, with the participation of Ukrainian professional specialists, shot a “documentary” film about the Kazakh “Holodomor” “Zulmat”.
Taking into account the fact that the project of the “National Council of Opposition Forces”, created by ex-deputy from the Nur-Otan party Nurzhan Altaev, went slowly and not everyone believed in the sincerity of its organizers and the reality of this association, the authorities decided to promote another character to the top in the person of Mom, I. To advertise it, they even staged an artificial conflict with the deputy chairman of the ruling Nur-Otan party, Baurzhan Baibek. This party boss made a special broadcast against the new “leader” of the national liberal opposition.
The authorities are currently actively creating a convenient pseudo-opposition crowd for themselves, when real activists and figures are imprisoned on trumped-up charges, and on the surface there remain people like Mamai, who are actually torpedoes for the fight against Russia and China in the interests of the West. Now they will actively serve the course of the geopolitical turn towards the United States and create the necessary background of “public support.”
Nationalists and liberals will also have to raise a “patriotic wave” within the country demanding withdrawal from the EAEU, CSTO and SCO and demand military-political rapprochement with the West.
Leader of the pro-Western Democratic Party Zhanbolat Mamai.
It is no coincidence that in July of this year, despite the pandemic, joint American-Kazakh military exercises “Steppe Eagle” are planned in the republic with the involvement of contingents from Uzbekistan, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and other countries.
Moreover, the construction of a US military base in one of these republics will have to finally consolidate this process of reorientation of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the West.
This was also mentioned in Washington when announcing the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which we will discuss in the next article.
Kazakhstan is increasingly dancing to the American tune.