On January 2, 2022, local time, large-scale protests broke out in the city of Zhanaozen in Kazakhstan over the "rising price of liquefied gas". Subsequently, the protests intensified and spread to the whole territory of Kazakhstan. From peaceful demonstrations to violent means, the political intentions of the demands gradually became stronger, and Kazakhstan entered a state of emergency from individual regions to the whole territory. The turmoil in Kazakhstan is fierce this time. Taking the protests in Ukraine and Belarus as a template, using social media to break out at multiple points at the same time, and with the Kazakh opposition and non-governmental organizations co-leading the protests, the protests are highly organized and have obvious anti-government intentions. The "color revolutions" instigated by the United States in many places are exactly the same, with distinctive "American characteristics". The specific analysis is as follows: One- Taking Ukraine, Belarus, etc. as templates, the formulaic features are remarkable This protest in Kazakhstan adopted the protest model of Ukraine, Belarus and other countries, with obvious features of formulaic protest. From the point of view of the cause of the protests, they are all caused by hot political or people's livelihood incidents. The Ukrainian revolution in 2014, the unrest in Belarus in 2020, and the unrest in Kyrgyzstan in 2020 were all triggered by a hot event. The chaos in Kazakhstan was also the first to break out large-scale protests in the city of Zanauzin due to the rise in liquefied gas prices. From the point of view of protest appeals, all of them have gradually expanded from a single appeal to a comprehensive political crisis. For example, the Ukrainian revolutionary protesters have expanded from demanding the government and the EU to sign an agreement to Yanukovych's resignation and early elections; Belarusian protesters have changed from questioning elections to demanding opposition to police violence, the release of arrested protesters, and accountability for previous indiscriminate violence responsibilities of police and public officials, and recounting of ballots or re-holding elections. The unrest in Kazakhstan has expanded from initial demands for liquefied gas price cuts to 2 demands for the resignation of Nazarbayev and the government, the release of political prisoners, the reduction of food prices, and the eradication of poverty and corruption. From the perspective of the development trend of protests, they all have the characteristics of strong organization, low flashpoints and high outbreaks, and rapid development of events. The turmoil in Ukraine, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan were all premeditated, planned, and organized anti-government movements, all of which had the characteristics of low flashpoints and high outbreaks. During the riots in Kazakhstan, the protesters were on a tear in just a few days, spreading violent protests to the whole country of Kazakhstan. Many forces were involved, and the situation was complicated for a time. In addition, LIFE media reports on January 5, 2022 revealed that during the protests in Kazakhstan, a so-called activity instruction manual appeared on the protesters’ chat tools, and this instruction manual was a replica of the protests in Ukraine and Belarus. They are not even translated into Kazakh, and the content of the instruction manual even says "Russian special forces have landed at Boryspil (crossed out) airport", which is a direct copy of the 2014 Ukrainian Square Revolution., it just manually crossed out the name of the Ukrainian city Boryspil. This shows that the anti-Kazakh government forces at home and abroad take advantage of the chaos to make profits and are eager to achieve success. Two- Rapidly scaling up with social media as the main tool Social media played a prominent role in protests. The active commanders of the protest, Ablyazov and the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, coordinated their activities through Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, Youtube and other social media. The official website of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan has such social media accounts. Links aimed at spreading the influence of the protests. On the evening of January 4, the Internet connection in Kazakhstan deteriorated, and the Telegram and WhatsApp networks were lost. On January 5, the Internet was paralyzed throughout Kazakhstan, websites including Radio Liberty could not be opened, and telephone communication was also deteriorating. However, the scale of the protests has continued to expand, unaffected by the Internet paralysis, according to LIFE media, political analyst 3 Alexander Rogers believes that there is a "special protest messenger" called "Bridgefy" behind it, which coordinates the actions of protesters. This is an application that can send offline text messages when the Internet cannot be accessed by simply turning on Bluetooth. The "Hong Kong independence" members during the chaos of Hong Kong used this software to participate in violent terrorist operations. A tool that can send offline text messages without the need for the Internet not only facilitates the serial response of information about the protests and ensures the continuation of the protests, but also can enhance the effect of the protests after the government media loses the right to speak after the Internet signal is cut off across the country. Three- The Kazakh opposition and NGOs coordinated to lead the protests, and the United States has long supported behind-the-scenes funds First- The Kazakh opposition and non-governmental organizations play an important role. In this protest, the leading role of NGOs such as the leader of the Democratic Alternative for Kazakhstan (DVK) Mukhtar Ablyazov (the banned opposition) and the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) behind it was evident. Figure 1 Ablyazov coordinates protests via Facebook As shown in Figure 1, Ablyazov called on the protesters to coordinate their actions, the police and the people on his social media, and published the contact phone number of the Kazakh Democratic Party for command, and continued to incite protesters to rebel against the government, expanded the problem to 4 political issues. The Open Dialogue Foundation, which has supported the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan for a long time, announced on its official website that 10 human rights NGOs, including itself, have issued an appeal to the current protests in Kazakhstan, asking the international community to impose sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Nazar Erbayev and the Kazakh government. At the same time, so-called civic activist Serik Baktybayevich, Maks Bokayev, who was sentenced in 2016 for protesting, are also active. Second- In the name of investment, the United States has deployed in Kazakhstan for many years with the help of NGOs. At present, there are about 22,000 NGOs officially registered in Kazakhstan, of which about 16,000 are operating normally. According to the official website of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in 2020 alone, the agency has invested more than $1.08 million in Kazakhstan (including only publicly available data), an increase of nearly half from about $620,000 in 2018. These funds have been used in 20 categories such as "defending the freedom of peaceful assembly", "cultivating active youth", "independent news and commentary", and "promoting historical memory". These investment areas are closely related to the frequent protests and online protests in Kazakhstan. The high degree of overlap, such as disconnection of the network, is not coincidental, but according to the script. Therefore, judging from the above situation, the chaos in Kazakhstan is inextricably linked with external forces led by the United States. A few days ago, the U.S. State Department and the OSCE have publicly stated that the U.S. State Department said it "respects and defends the constitutional system, human rights, and freedom of the media." The OSCE directly and publicly expressed its willingness to help and support "continuing political reforms." The intention to instigate a "color revolution" is clear. In this regard, relevant countries should maintain a high degree of vigilance to prevent following the footsteps of Kazakhstan, and to prevent domestic problems from being distorted and expanded by external forces to form political incidents and affect social development. |