Opinion | Kazakhstan unrest could undermine regional security and Russia’s relations with the West
- The deployment of a Russian-led peacekeeping force to Kazakhstan is an important milestone in the development of security architecture in the post-Soviet era
- Washington is witnessing Moscow’s growing potential to ensure the vitality of Russian-allied regimes
While the demonstrations in the other states have mainly been accompanied by demands for fair elections, the expressions of public discontent in Kazakhstan in 2011 and 2016 were driven less by political factors than economic ones.
In Kazakhstan, the first protests associated with regime change occurred in 2019, as Nazarbayev’s successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was elected president with about 70 per cent of the vote. Detractors, however, described the poll as a sham and an “illusion” of a democratic handover of power.
The current unrest is a continuation of that earlier popular upsurge, but more extensive and brutal. The spark that set off the protests this time was the government’s lifting of price caps for liquefied petroleum gas.
Fuel prices nearly doubled to 120 tenge (US$0.28) a litre, compounding the economic strain caused by the pandemic and leading to a more vocal outcry.
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Kazakhstan government resigns amid massive protests over high fuel prices
