The Russian Invasion of Kazakhstan thread

[sabang]

Some so called 'demonstrators' just need shooting, for the betterment of mankind. I doubt Vlads boys will need to do all the dirty work.

[harrybarracuda]

Some so called 'demonstrators' just need shooting, for the betterment of mankind. I doubt Vlads boys will need to do all the dirty work.

Well for you, that would be the ones that challenge the despotic rule of your murderous dictators, you snivelling sycophant.

[misskit]

Kazakhstan detains ex-security chief, president consults with Putin

ALMATY, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s former intelligence chief has been arrested on suspicion of treason, the state security agency said on Saturday, as the former Soviet republic is roiled by its worst unrest in 30 years.


The detention of Karim Massimov was announced by the National Security Committee which he headed until he was fired this week by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as violent protests swept across the Central Asian nation.


Tokayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a “lengthy” phone call that the situation in the country was stabilising, the Kremlin said.


It said Putin backed a proposal from Tokayev on the call to convene a video conference of leaders from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), under whose umbrella Russia and four other former Soviet republics have sent troops into Kazakhstan to help restore order.


Dozens of people have died, thousands have been detained and public buildings across Kazakhstan have been torched over the past week in the worst violence experienced in the major oil and uranium producer since it became independent in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed.


Tokayev has ordered his troops to shoot to kill to put an end to what he has called attacks by bandits and terrorists.


He said on Friday the state had “slept through” instigators’ preparations to launch attacks on the biggest city, Almaty, and across the country. The arrest of Massimov indicated that moves against those deemed responsible are under way.


Apart from heading the intelligence agency that replaced the Soviet-era KGB, Massimov is a two-time ex-prime minister who worked closely with former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s ruler for three decades until he turned over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019.


The demonstrations across the country began as a response to a fuel price hike but swelled into a broad movement against Tokayev’s Russian-backed government and 81-year-old Nazarbayev, whose family is widely believed to have retained influence in Nur-Sultan, the capital that bears his name.


EAST-WEST TENSIONS


After several days of violence, security forces appeared to have reclaimed control of the streets of Kazakhstan’s main city Almaty on Friday.


Some businesses and petrol stations began to reopen on Saturday in the city of around 2 million people as security forces patrolled the streets. Occasional gunshots could still be heard around the city’s main square.


The deputy mayor of the city was quoted by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying operations to purge the city of “terrorists and bandit groups” were still under way and citizens were advised to stay at home.


The interior ministry said that more than 4,400 people had been detained since the start of the unrest. Tokayev announced that a national day of mourning would take place on Monday to commemorate those killed in the unrest.


The deployment of the Russia-led CSTO military alliance in Kazakhstan at Tokayev’s invitation comes at a time of high tension in East-West relations as Russia and the United States gear up for talks next week on the Ukraine crisis.


Moscow has deployed large numbers of troops near its border with Ukraine though denies American suggestions that it is planning to invade the country, saying it wants guarantees that NATO will halt its eastward expansion.

Kazakhstan detains ex-security chief, president consults with Putin | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

[HermantheGerman]

Well for you, that would be the ones that challenge the despotic rule of your murderous dictators, you snivelling sycophant.

Sabang is a dictators dream come true.

He probably still wears his silly military uniform to bed.

[HermantheGerman]

"One lesson of recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave"
Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Now that's a fact Jack! Maybe that's why everyone loves them

[OhOh]

once Russians are in your house

The CSTO forces have been invited into the country by its legally elected President, as per their treaty, to assist if called upon.

Unlike more unexceptional splatter, splatters, militaries.

[harrybarracuda]

The CSTO forces have been invited into the country by its legally elected President, as per their treaty, to assist if called upon.

Unlike more unexceptional splatter, splatters, militaries.

"Legally elected President"?

Are you still trotting out this bollocks?

There are no legal elections in Kazakhstan, it's a dictatorship you fucking moron.

[sabang]

Knowledge of Kazakhstan in the West is extremely slim, particularly among western media, and many responses to events there have been wildly off-beam.

The narrative on the right is that Putin is looking to annex Kazakhstan, or at least the majority ethnic Russian areas in the north. This is utter nonsense.

The narrative on the left is that the CIA is attempting to instigate another colour revolution and put a puppet regime into Nur-Sultan (as the capital is called this week). This also is utter nonsense.

The lack of intellectual flexibility among western commentators entrapped in the confines of their own culture wars is a well-established feature of modern political society. Distorting a picture into this frame is not so easily detectable where the public have no idea what the picture normally looks like, as with Kazakhstan.

When you jump into a taxi in Kazakhstan, getting your suitcase into the boot is often problematic as it will be already full with a large LPG canister. Roof racks are big in Kazakhstan. Most Kazakh vehicles run on LPG, which has traditionally been a subsidised product of the nation’s massive oil and gas industry.

Fuel price rises have become, worldwide, a particular trigger of public discontent. The origins of the gilets jaunes movement in France lay in fuel price rises before spreading to other areas of popular greivance. The legacy of fuel protests in the UK have led for years cowardly politicians to submit to annual real reductions in the rate of fuel duty, despite climate change concerns.

The current political crisis in Kazakhstan was spiked by moves to deregulate the LPG market and end subsidy, which led to sharp price increases. These brought people onto the streets. The government quickly backed down and tried to reinstate price controls but not producer subsidies; that would have led gas stations to sell at a loss. The result was fuel shortages that just made protest worse.

Kazakhstan is an authoritarian dictatorship with extreme divisions in wealth and power between the ruling class – often still the old Soviet nomenklatura and their families – and everybody else. No political opposition is permitted. Infamously, after a massacre of striking miners, Tony Blair contacted former dictator Nazarbayev offering his PR services to help limit political fallout. This resulted in a $4 million per year contract for Blair to assist Kazakhstan’s PR, a contract on which BBC favourites Jonathon Powell and Alastair Campbell both worked.

One result of the Blairite media management for Kazakhstan was that the Guardian, publishing US leaked diplomatic cables in cooperation with Wikileaks, refused to publish US Embassy reports on corruption in Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh dictatorship is also a favourite destination of troughing royals Prince Andrew and Prince Michael of Kent.

I always viewed President Nazarbayev as the smartest of the Central Asian dictators. He allowed much greater individual economic freedom than in neighbouring Uzbekistan; Kazakhs could build up enterprises without the fear of having them confiscated at whim by the ruling family, and the collective farm land was given to native farmers and production diversified. Nazarbayev in foreign affairs skilfully balanced between Russia, the West and China, never definitively tilting in one direction. Ethnic Russian technocrats and academics were not driven from the country. Gazprom was not permitted to obtain dominant economic control.

There was no question of democracy being permitted or any form of opposition being given a voice. Media remained firmly under state control; internet access was restricted through designated ISP’s – I believe that has subsequently loosened, but I will not pretend to know the detail. But as in all systems with no democratic accountability and with effective legal impunity for the elite, corruption worsened, systems became sclerotic and frustration and resentment among the general population has built naturally.

The change of President two years ago from Nazarbayev to Tokayev brought no substantial changes in who runs the country.

The fuel price rises triggered protest, and once a population that had seen no outlet for its frustration viewed the chance to protest, then popular frustration erupted into popular dissent. However with no popular opposition leaders to direct it, this quickly became an incoherent boiling up of rage, resulting in destruction and looting.

So where do the CIA come in? They don’t. They were trying to groom a banned opposition leader (whose name I recall as Kozlov, but that may be wrong) but then discovered he was not willing to be their puppet, and the scheme was abandoned under Trump. The CIA were as taken aback by events as everybody else, and they don’t have any significant resources on the ground, or a Juan Gaido to jet in.

So where does Putin come in? Well, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation is a club of authoritarian ex-Soviet leaders.

Interestingly, Uzbekistan never joined because Karimov always worried (with some justification) Putin might wish to depose him. President Tokayev’s call for help is a very definite sign of internal weakness. All the CSTO countries have an interest in discouraging popular unrest, so it is unsurprising they have sent in troops, but in numbers which can make no real difference in a vast country like Kazakhstan (which is really, really, really big).

So what happens next? I expect the regime will survive, but then neither I, nor any observer I know of, predicted this would happen in the first place. The unrest will be blamed, entirely untruthfully, on Islamic terrorists and western support. The real consequence may be in the globally important pipeline politics of the region, where there may be a long term shift away from China and towards Russia.

There will be frustration in Beijing as much as in Washington. Tokayev is now indebted to Putin in a way he never has been before. I can guarantee that emergency meetings at the highest level are taking place between the Kremlin and Gazprom right now to determine what they want to leverage from the situation. Putin, as Napoleon might have observed, is an extremely lucky general.

What Kazakhstan Isn't - Craig Murray


Craig Murray was HM Ambassador to neighbouring Uzbekistan 2002-04.

[panama hat]

legally elected President

Some so called 'demonstrators' just need shooting, for the betterment of mankind

Ah, birds of a feather . . .

[Backspin]

[harrybarracuda]

Craig Murray was HM Ambassador to neighbouring Uzbekistan 2002-04.

Craig Murray is a monger who was sacked for being a drunk, and takes his misery out by licking Putin's arse and constantly berating the West for some reason or another.

While married, he was paying some Tashkent lap dancer $200 a month to "stay out of the bar" while some seppo was paying her $300 a month and she was webcamming for a Romanian.

His judgement is impeccable and completely trustworthy.

[HermantheGerman]

The CSTO forces have been invited into the country by its legally elected President, as per their treaty, to assist if called upon.

Unlike more unexceptional splatter, splatters, militaries.

Putin turned up the gas price, knowingly there will be uprisings and so can invade Kazakhstan.




* I know that sounds silly. Just trying to compete with OhOh & Co.

[HermantheGerman]

.....then again

I can guarantee that emergency meetings at the highest level are taking place between the Kremlin and Gazprom right now to determine what they want to leverage from the situation. Putin, as Napoleon might have observed, is an extremely lucky general.

[HermantheGerman]

"Legally elected President"?

Are you still trotting out this bollocks?

There are no legal elections in Kazakhstan, it's a dictatorship you fucking moron.

I think OhOh has wet dreams about being a dictator

[OhOh]

I think OhOh has wet dreams about being a dictator

There is only one dictator in our house, my cute but so demanding Thai wife.

[Backspin]

Craig Murray is a monger who was sacked for being a drunk, and takes his misery out by licking Putin's arse and constantly berating the West for some reason or another.

While married, he was paying some Tashkent lap dancer $200 a month to "stay out of the bar" while some seppo was paying her $300 a month and she was webcamming for a Romanian.

His judgement is impeccable and completely trustworthy.

Oh and TD is full of upstanding Catholics on their fiest marriage

[Backspin]

[panama hat]

Oh and TD is full of upstanding Catholics on their fiest marriage

Why are always a cvnt? A childish and vacuous one at that?

Craig Murray is a monger who was sacked for being a drunk, and takes his misery out by licking Putin's arse and constantly berating the West for some reason or another.

While married, he was paying some Tashkent lap dancer $200 a month to "stay out of the bar" while some seppo was paying her $300 a month and she was webcamming for a Romanian.

His judgement is impeccable and completely trustworthy.

Just the kind of role model sabang and OHWoe cling to as their 'irreproachable man on the ground intellectual'

[OhOh]

Another commentator highlights more intrigue:

Kazakhstan turns into graveyard for US diplomacy

January 9, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

A Pentagon-funded bio-lab near Almaty, Kazakhstan, has become focus of attention for its research on “dangerous pathogens”

"The Kazakh Ministry of Health issued an innocuous disclaimer today denying social media reports about the seizure of a “military biological lab near Almaty by unidentified people.”

According to Tass news agency, the social media had speculated that specialists in chemical protection suits were working near the lab as “a leak of dangerous pathogens” occurred.

The carefully worded press release by the Kazakh ministry clarifies: “This is not true. The facility is being protected.” Period.

The intriguing report highlights the tip of an iceberg which has implications for public health and holds serious geopolitical ramifications.

Since the late 1990s, when it came to be known that the US was steadily establishing and building up partnerships in biological research with several ex-Soviet republics, Moscow has repeatedly alleged that such cooperation posed a threat to Russia.
These biological research facilities were originally envisaged as part of the so-called Nunn-Lugar Biological Threat Reduction Program to prevent the proliferation of expertise, materials, equipment and technologies that could contribute to the development of biological weapons.

But Moscow suspected that the exact opposite was happening — in reality, Pentagon has been sponsoring, lavishly financing and providing technical assistance to these laboratories where “under the guise of peaceful research, the US is building up its “military-biological potential.”

In a sensational statement in October 2018, Major General Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops went to the extent of disclosing a discernible pattern of the network of Pentagon labs being located near the borders of Russia and China.

The US-Kazakh partnership in this field dates back to 2003. Kazakhstan has been an interesting “hotspot” for infectious disease occurrence and surveillance due in part to its history, geography, and its diversity of host species. Kazakhstan has long maintained an infrastructure and tiered network for infectious disease surveillance since the time of the Tsars.

The US-funded research projects centred on studies involving select agents including zoonoses: anthrax, plague, tularemia, highly pathogenic avian influenza, brucellosis, etc. These projects funded researchers in Kazakhstan, while project collaborators in the US and UK mentored and guided these researchers to develop and test their hypotheses.

It has been a “win-win” arrangement. The Kazakh institute staff got trained in modern diagnostic and data management techniques, and did research work with lavish external funding, while the Pentagon obtained through such labs valuable inputs for US covert biological weapon programs with military application specifically directed against ethnic groups in Russia and China.

The unassumingly-named Central Reference Laboratory (CRL) in Almaty figuring in the Tass report was originally planned in 2013 with the US investing $102 million in a biosecurity lab to study some of the most deadly pathogens that could potentially be used in bioterrorism attacks.

Rather than locating the new facility in some obsecure tract of land in Nevada, the Pentagon deliberately chose a site near Almaty to securely store and study the highest-risk diseases such as plague, anthrax and cholera.

The rationale was that the lab would provide gainful employment to talented Kazakh researchers and get them off the streets, so to speak — that is, discourage them from selling their scientific expertise and services to terrorist groups who may have use for biological weapons!

But the CRL, now operational, is anchored on institutional cooperation between Kazakh government and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency under the the Pentagon, which is tasked with protecting “US National Security interests in a rapidly evolving, globalised threat environment to enable a greater understanding of our adversaries and provide solutions to WMD threats in an era of Great Power Competition.”

By the way, Germany also has a similar arrangement under the rubric German-Kazakh Network for Biosafety and Biosecurity, which is co-managed by the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology (a military research facility of the German Armed Forces for Medical Biological Defence.)

Why is Kazakhstan a sought-after partner? Simply put, the country provides unique access to ethnic Russian and Chinese groups as “specimen” for conducting field research involving highly pathogenic, potential biological warfare agents. Kazakhstan has 13,364 km of borders with its neighbouring countries Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

Is China indifferent to all this? Far from it. Beijing Review featured a report sourced from BBC Monitoring in 2020 conveying China’s concerns in the matter. As recently as in November last year, a Russian commentator wrote that these bio-labs are virtual Pentagon bases and demanded an international inquiry. He highlighted that the Kazakh ministry of education and science “now works mainly on Pentagon research programmes.”

How could Kazakhstan, a CSTO member country, have got away with such conduct? This needs some explaining.
Paradoxically, these biological labs are living examples of something sinister that has been going on which everyone knew and no one wanted to talk about — namely, the extensive penetration of the decadent Kazakh ruling elites by the US intelligence.

This penetration has been going on for years but significantly deepened as the 81-year old former president Nurusultan Nazarbayev’s “hands-on” leadership began to loosen and his family members and cronies increasingly began moonlighting (under the patriarch’s benevolent gaze, of course) — something akin to Yeltsin years in Russia.
Sadly, it is a familiar story. The Kazakh elites are notoriously corrupt even by Central Asian standards and the parasitic elites have preferred to keep their loot in safe havens in the western world . Unsurprisingly, they are hopelessly compromised to the US intelligence. It’s as simple as that.

Most certainly, Moscow sensed that popular disaffection was building up and the ground beneath the feet of Nazarbayev, a close friend of Putin, was shifting. But it did not — or more likely, would not — interfere since the US was operating through powerful comprador elements who happened to be the ageing patriarch’s family members and associates.

Given the clan affiliations in that part of the world, Moscow probably felt it prudent to keep its counsel to itself. An added factor would have been the fear that the US might manipulate the ultra-nationalist forces (as happened in Ukraine) to inflict harm on the vulnerable 3.5 million ethnic Russian minority (18% of the population.)
Above all, the fact of the matter is that Nazarbayev cronies held the levers of state power, especially over security apparatus, which gave Washington a decisive edge.

But things have dramatically changed this past week. Nazarbayev may still have some residual influence but not good enough to rescue the elite who subserved US interests. President Tokayev, a low-profile career diplomat by profession, is finally coming on his own.

Two of Tokayev’s decisive moves have been the replacement of Nazarbayev as the head of the National Security Council and the dismissal of the country’s powerful intelligence chief Karim Masimov (who has since been arrested along with other unidentified suspects as part of a probe into “high treason.”)

Indeed, Washington has much to worry about because, at the end of the day, Kazakhstan remains an unfinished business unless and until a colour revolution can bring about regime change and instal a pro-West ruler in power, as in Ukraine. The current turbulence signified an abortive attempt at colour revolution, which boomeranged.

Unlike in Afghanistan, CIA and Pentagon are not in a position to “evacuate” their collaborators. And the torrential flow of events has shocked the Washington establishment. Kazakhstan is a large country (two-thirds the size of India) and sparsely populated (18 million), and the CSTO forces who moved in are well-equipped and led by a tough seasoned general who crushed the US-backed insurgency in Chechnya.
The Russian forces have taken with them advanced Leer-3 electronic warfare system, which includes specially configured Orlan-10 drones, jamming devices, etc. Borders have been sealed.

The mandate for Russian forces is to protect “strategic assets”. Presumably, such assets include the Pentagon-funded labs in Kazakhstan."


https://www.indianpunchline.com/kaza...-us-diplomacy/

[panama hat]

Kazakhstan turns into graveyard for US diplomacy

More like

Kazakhstan turns into graveyard after Russian invasion

https://www.thedailybeast.com/crisis...-attackfor-now

[harrybarracuda]

Another sponsored propagandist spouts made up bollocks.

Because it's completely plausible that a pro-Putin dictator would allow the US to build a "bioweapons lab" in his country.

It is plausible, however, that the US would pay the Kazakhs to keep this stuff from falling into the wrong hands.

*cough*Novichok*cough.

Before the USSR broke up, the Soviets were known to have weaponized plague and were tinkering with other potential biological weapons, though what became of those deadly cultures remains unclear. As such, biological weapons expert Raymond Zilinskas told NatGeo, “There’s a real biosecurity threat in countries of the former Soviet Union, and the Russian government is remarkably uncooperative in this area.”

[sabang]

The Russian Invasion of Crimea
The Chinese Genocide in Xinjiang
The Russian Invasion of Kazakhstan
President Juan Guaido of Venezuela


The list goes on. Some people just blissfully exist in noddyland, don't they? No wonder these beta cucks are so triggered by Craig Murray, who became the UK's youngest Ambassador (Uzbekistan 2002-04) at age 41- but is proudly and unforgivable white, male, heterosexual, enjoys a beer, and a larf. I bet he cracks filthy jokes- and makes a crackin' after dinner speaker. Sorry, no betas invited.

[harrybarracuda]

The Russian Invasion of Crimea
The Chinese Genocide in Xinjiang
The Russian Invasion of Kazakhstan
President Juan Guaido of Venezuela


The list goes on. Some people just blissfully exist in noddyland, don't they?

Yes. You do.

[OhOh]

Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
Another sponsored propagandist spouts made up bollocks.

Editing another member's post again, "arry. A pitiful action, even a cornered bitch doesn't exhibit such lack of manners.

Because it's completely plausible that a pro-Putin dictator would allow the US to build a "bioweapons lab" in his country.

A sovereign countries' leader has many wheels to spin, all legal and possibly well paid.

The current leader executed one just recently, when he requested aid from the CSTO group, to subdue terrorist activities. Somewhat similar to NATO one suspects.

"The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO;

Iis an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia that consists of select post-Soviet states. The treaty had its origins to the Soviet Armed Forces, which was gradually replaced by the United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

On 15 May 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States—Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—signed the Collective Security Treaty (also referred to as the Tashkent Pact or Tashkent Treaty)"

Collective Rapid Reaction Force

"On 4 February 2009, an agreement to create the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (KSOR) was reached by five of the seven members, with plans finalized on 14 June.

The force is intended to be used to repulse military aggression, conduct anti-terrorist operations, fight transnational crime and drug trafficking, and neutralize the effects of natural disasters.<sup>"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collec...y_Organization</sup>


"International cooperation in the field of peacemaking is underway. In September 2012, a corresponding Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the CSTO Secretariat and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations"

https://en.odkb-csto.org/25years/

Whoever organised a real 06/01 insurrection, has been thwarted this time, hopefully.

[harrybarracuda]

Editing another member's post again, "arry. A pitiful action, even a cornered bitch doesn't exhibit such lack of manners.

No-one reads the drivel you post anyway, so I prefer to save my fellow members' endless scrolling past your utter fucking shite.