Kazakhstan president vows to respond with force as protests escalate

Kazakhstan’s president vowed on Wednesday to act with force to curb protests that have swept the resource-rich central Asian nation, as demonstrators clashed with police in the most significant challenge for years to the country’s autocratic rule.

A state of emergency was declared nationwide after anger at rising fuel prices escalated into protests in several cities, with major buildings set alight and demonstrators overrunning an airport in former capital Almaty.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the resignation of the government and said he was assuming control of the country's security council, giving him more powers to direct security forces or crack down on protests if he saw fit.

It leaves questions over the role of former longtime president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in 2019 after three decades as the country’s leader but had retained control of the security council and held significant sway as a “leader of the nation” figure.

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Kazakhstan is a major oil producer and a member of the Opec+ group of countries. Brent crude prices rose on Wednesday, in part on worries that the protests could disrupt oil supplies.

The country’s other main importance for global energy markets comes from its production of uranium for nuclear power plants. Last year the country accounted for more than 40 per cent of global uranium output. It is also in the world’s top dozen suppliers of zinc and copper.

Concessions

The government’s resignation and Mr Nazarbayev’s displacement mark two concessions to those who joined the demonstrations, which started three days ago and have snowballed into the biggest in Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet history.

Kazakhstan, like Russia and other countries in the region, has been struggling with rising prices for basic commodities amid the economic strain of the pandemic.

In a televised broadcast on Wednesday, Mr Tokayev blamed the rare protests in the tightly controlled country on “financially motivated conspirators” and said crowds of bandits were beating up security services, leading to some deaths.

“As a result, as the head of state – and, as of today, as the chairman of the security council – I intend to act as forcefully as possible. It is a matter of the security of our citizens,” said Mr Tokayev, who is viewed as a loyal Nazarbayev ally.

The upheaval in one of Russia’s largest neighbours is also a potential concern for Moscow, which has enjoyed a close and stable relationship with Kazakhstan’s leadership. Mr Tokayev held a telephone call with leaders of Russia and Belarus, both of which are members of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation, which has to react if one of its members requires military help.

Russia’s foreign ministry said it was keeping a keen eye on the situation, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kazakhstan could handle the situation on its own, and warned against “outside interference”.

In the most populous city, Almaty, tear gas and stun grenades were used as protesters stormed a presidential residence and set fire to the city’s main administrative building. A video shared on social media showed protesters in another town in the area tearing down a statue of Mr Nazarbayev.

Protesters seized Almaty’s international airport, the Orda.kz news outlet quoted an airport press service employee as saying. Airport staff evacuated any passengers before the attackers, numbering around 45 people, arrived, the outlet reported.

Internet blocked

The government blocked access to the internet almost nationwide, according to internet disruption monitors, with reports too of patchy mobile service and the suspension of some TV services. Hundreds of people have been detained.

Workers had gathered at the Tengiz oilfield, the country’s largest, in support of the protest but output had not been affected, a spokesperson for Chevron, which operates the project, told the Financial Times. The spokesperson said the company was working “to resolve this situation as soon as possible”. Tengiz pumps around 600,000 barrels a day of oil, and includes ExxonMobil, Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas and Russia’s Lukoil as partners.

Some journalists and commentators in Moscow accused unspecified outside forces of stirring up protests in Kazakhstan to destabilise Russia’s eastern flank, ahead of a round of diplomatic negotiations when Moscow wants to discuss the balance of power to its west.

Washington, Moscow and Nato member states are set to meet for talks next week, when Russia intends to press for “security guarantees” to limit the military alliance’s expansion in Europe. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022