This decision occurs while the state of emergency has been decreed in the city of Almaty and in a province rich in oil, shaken by many events.
Le Monde
The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, asked Wednesday, January 5, his government, in response to the demonstrations who agitated a province rich in oil, and related disorders related to an increase in gas prices.
An order published on the presidential site indicates that Mr. Tokaev had accepted the resignation of the Government led by Prime Minister Askar Mamin. Deputy Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov will assume the role of the acting Prime Minister until the formation of a new cabinet.
The day before, the head of state had decreed the state of emergency, from January 5th and until January 19, in this oil region of Mangystau and Almaty (South-East), the economic capital . A curfew will be introduced from 23 hours to 7 hours.
“Do not answer the provocations from abroad and from the interior of the country. Do not answer the calls to storm official buildings. It is a crime for which you would be punished,” said The head of the 68, who has been governing the country since 2019.
“The old man outside!”
The police used Tuesday in Almaty of deafening grenades and tear gas to disperse a manifestation against the rise in gas prices that had collected several thousand people, to the cries of “the old man outside!” and “resignation of the government ! “. Mr. Tokayev had been chosen as successor by the Nursultan Nazarbayev Historical Manager, 81, who led Kazakhstan for thirty years from 1989 and retains an influence.
This event, in an authoritarian country where this type of gathering is rare, follows a movement of anger that has erupted in several cities since Sunday. Kazakhstan, the first economy of Central Asia accustomed to two-digit growth, suffers from lower oil prices and the economic crisis in Russia, which led to the devaluation of the Kazakh currency, the TENGE, AND STRONG INFLATION.
Two journalists from the France-Press agency (AFP), who saw Tuesday the police shots to disperse the crowd in Almaty, counted at least 5,000 participants in this event. WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal messengeries were inaccessible in the night.
a drop in prices to try to calm the voltages
The angry movement began on Sunday, following an increase in liquefied natural gas prices (LNG), in the city of Janaozen, in the west of this country rich in natural resources, before. Extend to the large regional city of Aktau, on the banks of the Caspian Sea.
Tuesday night, the authorities had tried to calm the situation by granting a reduction in the price of LNG, setting it to 50 tengins (0.10 euro) the liter in the region, against 120 at the beginning of the year. Justifying this regional concession, Mr. Tokayev assured Twitter that it was a question of “ensuring stability in the country”, but this promise did not result in the dispersion of protesters, which required to speak to the President .
Janaozen has been the scene of the most murderer disorders who have shaken Kazakhstan since its independence from the USSR in 1991. In 2011, at least 14 workers from an oil site had been killed when the police had repressed a manifestation against working conditions and wages.
The Mangystau region, where is located the city of Janaozen, depends on the LNG as the main source of fuel for cars and any increase in its price resulting from food products, already on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic Due to coronavirus.