Amazing. Polish news also reports titles like this but they at least mention in the text “shoot without warning at any armed person who does not step down”. Why is BBC report missing this part of info?
You mean "according to the interior ministry". Of course the government will make it sound like it is the real victim here (while also celebrating its Kill to Death Ratio). The government also claims there are "20,000 bandits" who it "[has] to destroy ... soon". Comparison to Tienanmen could be an understatement, if the government achieves its goals.
According to the article, the reason for the protests is a hike in fuel prices. I'm going now in a tangent, but I wonder how much more of this we are going to see everywhere, specially if governments acted in the best interest of our environment and did everything in their power to prevent people from using fossil fuels.
In Kazakhstan, gov't subsidized gas was being smuggled from Almaty to neighboring China and Kyrgystan in order to sell at market prices - triple the amount.
This caused a massive black market to emerge, so Kazakhstan raised prices closer to the market levels to curb the black market and the organized crime that comes with it.
That is why the protesters are so well organized, and why it is specifically violent in Almaty.
Curious how this unrest can happen, like a switch was flipped, given the circumstances on the other Russian border country with Ukraine. Coincidental timing if nothing else, right?
A switch was flipped? Did you forget about 30 years of dictatorship, nepotism and corruption? If a dam collapses, do you also think it happens by some sort of switch?
Also, I find it amusing that the West is always mentioned as potential factor, yet the bigger picture is rarely mentioned: Kazakhstan is a resource rich country with low population, sandwiched between two countries with huge ambition. China has much stake in Kazakhstan as any other countries, and probably more.
When global gas prices rose this year, a black market emerged in Kazakhstan to smuggle out gov't subsidized gas to neighboring Kyrgystan and China (sold at triple the price). As the price of global gas went up, this black market became more profitable, more organized, and more controlled by organized crime.
Remember also that Kazakhstan's largest city (and former capital in 2019), Almaty, is located by the Southern border. In an effort to curb this black market, the domestic price of gas raised much closer to the global market rate. Not surprisingly, the unrest was most violent and most well organized in Almaty.
There is also an undercurrent of ethnic conflict between the ethnic Kazakh people and the ethnic Russia population. The former government has been working to switch from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin one, sending out language police to ensure businesses don't do business in Russian, and probably most importantly, talking to the US to establish US air bases.
They lifted price caps on liquified petroleum gas on January 1st. It is used for heating, cooking, hot water, and most cars there run on LPG. Prices doubled overnight. Other reasons for unrest, but that was the switch flip / last straw.
[+] [-] rad_gruchalski|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] schleck8|4 years ago|reply
Edit: Quoting the president according to a top comment on r/europe
> “Negotiations are nonsense stupidity, these protesters are criminals, terrorists with foreign backup”
[+] [-] a0-prw|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mikeb85|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dane-pgp|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] underscore_ku|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsign|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] q1w2|4 years ago|reply
This caused a massive black market to emerge, so Kazakhstan raised prices closer to the market levels to curb the black market and the organized crime that comes with it.
That is why the protesters are so well organized, and why it is specifically violent in Almaty.
[+] [-] schleck8|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Threeve303|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] relativ575|4 years ago|reply
Also, I find it amusing that the West is always mentioned as potential factor, yet the bigger picture is rarely mentioned: Kazakhstan is a resource rich country with low population, sandwiched between two countries with huge ambition. China has much stake in Kazakhstan as any other countries, and probably more.
[+] [-] q1w2|4 years ago|reply
Remember also that Kazakhstan's largest city (and former capital in 2019), Almaty, is located by the Southern border. In an effort to curb this black market, the domestic price of gas raised much closer to the global market rate. Not surprisingly, the unrest was most violent and most well organized in Almaty.
There is also an undercurrent of ethnic conflict between the ethnic Kazakh people and the ethnic Russia population. The former government has been working to switch from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin one, sending out language police to ensure businesses don't do business in Russian, and probably most importantly, talking to the US to establish US air bases.
[+] [-] tyingq|4 years ago|reply