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Since the beginning of 2022, the partner of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, the Caspian-Eurasia Center, has been monitoring developments in the neighboring Republic of Kazakhstan. The Center is especially worried and empathizes with colleagues, friends and partners, and also tries to keep in touch with the Atyrau region bordering the Astrakhan region.
Andrey Korablev, Chairman of the Russian ethnocultural association Bylina, got in touch with Caspian-Eurasia. The expert spoke about how events develop in Atyrau these days:
- Everything is stabilizing. If we talk about our region, then in fact our people did not follow the provocateurs. This is what I emphasize. When in a number of cities of Kazakhstan the protest turned into riots, our people did not join such "actions".
In general, it should be noted that there were no destructions, burned cars in Atyrau during all these tragic days, especially for a number of large cities of the country. I am sure that in this regard, the Atyrauchan people showed political literacy, and also thought about social responsibility - after all, all the destruction will then be restored at the expense of the people. Remember, when we all still maintain communication, videos of protesters on the central square in Atyrau were thrown into messengers. They called for order and that no one should be led by provocateurs. This is also a kind of social consciousness of the Atyrau people! And it’s good, I repeat, that the riots did not develop into a mass form.
Kazakhstan faced such a situation for the first time. In fact, and now principles are being developed, according to which, I think, serious conclusions will be drawn, because the threat comes not only to us. What happened to our republic can happen throughout the post-Soviet space.
I think we will be moving beyond all these consequences for a long time. But for our country it was very scary. People died defending the law and order - they, tried to maintain law and order at the cost of their lives, and this is worth a special sign of attention from civil society. And the fact that the President declared January 10 the national day of mourning is, of course, correct. Unfortunately, according to official data, I heard that one person died during the clashes in our region. This is very sad. And so many died in other cities...
...Today, there is no panic in Atyrau, people work, go shopping, and this is an indicator of the government bodies’ work.
I expect everything to stabilize soon. Serious conclusions will be drawn; the President has already said this. Certain work will be carried out in the army, law enforcement bodies and special services. I am sure that we will feel a positive moment in the near future.
Recall that on January 2, unrest and protests related to the increase in prices for liquefied gas began in Kazakhstan. On January 4, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency, first in certain regions and cities, and then throughout the country. On January 7, the authorities announced the restoration of order.