MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2022) There is no evidence of external interference in the Kazakh affairs at the state level, but the influence comes at the ideological level, Kazakh Ambassador to Moscow Ermek Kosherbayev said on Saturday.
In a phone briefing earlier in the day a senior US administration official denied Washington's involvement in the events of the past week in Kazakhstan following reports that some of the protesters were well-organized and well-equipped, and did not speak the Kazakh language.
"At the diplomatic level, I cannot say that there is obvious interference, there is none. If there is any, then at the ideological level or maybe through various centers. That is, officially at the state level, nothing like this happens, moreover, there is an understanding about what is happening in Kazakhstan," Kosherbayev told the Soloviev Live YouTube show.
The influence on the protests of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former banker and government minister who has claimed to be the leader of the Kazakh opposition movement, is also very limited despite his significant financial resources, Director of the Kazakh Institute of World Economy and politics Yerzhan Saltybaev said. Ablyazov was sentenced in absentia in Kazakhstan for murder and embezzlement.
A wave of protests against a hike in gas prices across Kazakhstan led to nationwide uproar earlier this week, resulting in clashes with the police, casualties and looting. The president declared a nationwide state of emergency, effective until January 19, and invited the peacekeeping forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to help bring the situation under control.
