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Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev responded to the bloody protests with an iron fist. He called the demonstrators terrorists. Photo/REUTERS
Tokayev also vaguely hinted that “foreigners” were behind the violent unrest in his country.
Also read: Angry Masses, Demolish Statue of Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev
The bloody protests that have so far killed dozens of demonstrators and police officers were sparked by rising gas prices. This policy is an irony for Kazakhstan as a country rich in oil and gas.
Tokyev is known as a veteran politician and diplomat who has taken a “leaf” from the Kremlin conspiracy playbook.
Tokayev spent the formative years of his career in the service of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After graduating from school in Almaty – the scene of the worst rioting this week – he studied foreign relations at a state institute in Moscow.
Tokayev specializes in Chinese. He mastered the language, joined the far eastern division of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs and spent much of the 1980s at the Soviet Embassy in Beijing.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, he quickly became an adviser to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of newly independent Kazakhstan.
It was Tokayev who persuaded other countries to recognize Kazakhstan diplomatically. China is very enthusiastic. Narzabayev rewarded Tokayev with making him deputy foreign minister, as well as translator and adviser to the official delegation to Beijing.
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