A spokesman for the former president of Kazakhstan said on Saturday that he was still in the capital, rejecting rumors that Nursultan Nazarbayev had left the country.
Aidos Ukibay said on Twitter that Nazarbayev was in “direct contact” with the current president, Kasim Zhomart Tokayev, who has so far been seen as an insert for his predecessor.
Nazarbayev “urges everyone to unite around the President of Kazakhstan to overcome the current challenges and ensure the indivisibility of the country,” Ukibayev wrote.
He also called for the dissemination of “deliberately false and speculative information”, apparently pointing to unconfirmed reports that Nazarbayev had fled the country.
The 81-year-old former president, who, after an unexpected resignation in 2019, was declared a “national leader” and has largely retained de facto power since the start of the protests, which took over the whole of Kazakhstan this week, has not been made public so far and has not commented on what is happening.
As reported, protests against the sharp rise in liquefied gas prices began on Sunday in Zhanaozen, in the southwest of the country.
In the following days, however, protests took over the whole of Kazakhstan, and political demands began to emerge alongside economic ones. The protesters demanded, among other things, the complete departure of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his clan.
Peaceful protests soon escalated in collisions with security services. As well as seizing government buildings, attacks on police stations and looting of shops began.
On Thursday, the Russian-controlled military alliance of the former USSR or the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB), in response to Tokayev’s request, sent to Kazakhstan “Peacekeepers”, and now the regime seems to have regained control of the streets of the troubled cities.-
During the crackdown on protests have been killed by both security and protesters.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry announced that 4404 people had been detained for participating in riots.
At the same time, the National Security Committee (CSC) said on Saturday that former KNB chairman Karim Masimov, a close associate of Nazarbayev, had been arrested on suspicion of “treason” and had lost his post as a result of protests.
At the start of the protests, Nazarbayev himself was replaced by Tokayev as chairman of the Security Council.
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