A spokesman for the former Kazakhstan president said on Saturday he was still in the capital, dismissing rumors that Nursultan Nazarbayev was leaving the country.
Aidos Ukibay said on Twitter that Nazarbayev was in “direct contact” with current President Kasim Zomart Tokayev, who has so far been seen as an insider of his predecessor.
Nazarbayev “urges everyone to unite around the President of Kazakhstan to deal with the current challenges and ensure the country’s inseparability,” writes Ukibayev.
He also called for the spread of “deliberately false and speculative information”, pointing to apparently unconfirmed reports that Nazarbayev had fled the country.
The 81-year-old former president, who was declared a “national leader” following his unexpected resignation in 2019 and has largely retained de facto power since protests broke out this week, have engulfed the whole of Kazakhstan . Not disclosed or commented on.
Protests broke out in Zhanozhen in the country’s southwest on Sunday against a sharp rise in liquefied gas prices.
However, in the following days, there were protests across 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.
The peaceful protest soon turned into a conflict with the security services. With the capture of government buildings, attacks on police stations and looting of shops started.
The Russian-controlled military alliance of the former USSR, or the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB), sent “peacekeepers” to Kazakhstan in response to Tokayev’s request, and the regime has now gained control of the streets of troubled cities.
Both members of the security services and protesters have been killed in the action of the protests.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry announced that 4404 people had been detained for participating in the riots.
Meanwhile, the National Security Committee (CSC) said on Saturday that former KNB chairman Karim Massimov, a close aide of Nazarbayev, was arrested on suspicion of “treason” and lost his post as a result of the protests.
At the beginning of the protests, Nazarbayev was replaced by Tokayev as chairman of the Security Council.