In a new speech, addressed this time to Parliament via videoconference, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassim-Josart Tokáyev, has reported that next Thursday the russian withdrawal of the Central Asian country, while announcing a series of measures designed to alleviate discontent of the population and to put an end to corruption. “We need a new social contract format,” he promised.
“The main mission of peacekeeping forces has been completed successfully; In two days the withdrawal process will begin in phases; the operation will last no more than 10 days, “the president has promised, an extreme that the Russian president himself, Vladimir Putin, had already advanced the day before.
Promises, yes, that must be confirmed with facts in the coming days. On several previous occasions, the Kremlin leader has announced withdrawals of his military contingents deployed abroad that never materialized or were simply partial withdrawals later corrected as soon as the tension reproduced. This has happened twice in the conflict of Syria, and on one occasion in the pulse facing Russia with Ukraine.
Sense of identity
However, in favor of a quick withdrawal plays the intense feeling of national identity majority among the Kazakh people. According to analysts, a prolonged military presence of the contingent sent by the Organization for the Collective Security Treaty (OSTC), a military alliance that brings together several former Soviet republics and is led by Russia, would end up damaging the image of the Kazakh head of state among citizens, presenting it as excessively dependent on the Kremlin.
Tokáyev has devoted a large space of his speech to the deputies to criticize leaders linked to the previous president, Nursultán Nazarbayev, and to promise that he would try eradicate corrupt practices and patronage generated during his long tenure. “The time has come for the transformation of relations between the State and society,” he announced.
Enter here battery of populist measures that he has announced, is the restructuring of the Central Bank. “It has become a personal bank for a select circle of people,” he denounced. And he has “strongly recommended” to companies in the country to contribute monetarily to a social fund aimed at improving health and education in the country. It has also commissioned the new Prime Minister, Aliján Smailov, to design a program designed to “increase the income of the population in two months”.
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