Anti-government protests errupted across Kazakhstan on Saturday. Dozens of protesters have gathered in the main squares of major cities [SF editor: mainly, in the southern parts of the country].
A series of demonstrations started last month in response to the government’s plans to privatise large tracts of farmland. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has vetoed the controversial initiative. However, protests have continued with a wider range of political demands. Experts believe that this scenario is fueled by foreign powers, interested to destabilize the Central Asian country. If Kazakhstan is destabilized, the acute security situation in the Central Asia will worsen, significantly.
Kazakhstan’s deputy prosecutor general, Andrei Kravchenko said that 40 people had been arrested for organising and taking part in these unauthorised demonstrations, TASS news agency reported on Saturday.
Earlier on Firday, Kazakh police reported they had found caches of Molotov cocktails, gasoline and iron rods near the protest site in Almaty. These kinds of improvised weapons used in protests in Ukraine during the coput in 2014.
The recent developments in Kazakhstan likely pursue next goals:
- Foreign powers use protests in order to put pressure on the Kazakh government or even to change the Nazarbayev regime;
- Creation of a new crisis zone in the Central Asia that may lead to a wide crisis at the Russian and Chinese borders;
- Some internal forces (local clans) are making attempt to redivide the financial flows and the share of the political power.