Coordination Center used during Kazakhstan Protests in Ukraine's Kiev: Fugitive Banker

Former Kazakhstan banker, Mukhtar Ablyazov who fled the country and reached France, said that a coordination center used during the mass demonstrations in Central Asian state is located in Kyiv. Ablyazov told Sputnik, “Our organizational headquarters - more precisely, it was called The ‘Democratic Elections of Kazakhstan’ Coordination Headquarters - is located in Kyiv” while explaining that the coordination centre received calls from demonstrators who were then directed to act according to a certain “algorithm” developed by the opposition.

According to the Russian news agency, the fugitive banker said that the “algorithm” requires the protesters to act in a coordinated manner and “not to allow the authorities to engage in provocations”. However, Ablyazov noted that it also involves the seizure of administrative buildings. The former Kazakh banker emphasised that the riots that rocked the country earlier this month and caused the death of more than 200 people, were not an attempt to a coup.

Ablyazov told Sputnik, “A coup d'etat is when one acts in a non-constitutional way, by military means…Here, all these rallies are our constitutional right."

Ablyazov admits that he was directing occupation of administrative buildings

The banker also told the Russian agency that during the mass demonstrations, which were triggered by a two-fold increase in fuel prices, he was urging the protesters to occupy the administrative buildings. He told the outlet, “We called for occupying administrative buildings [in Kazakhstan] while specifying that he meant “filling” the buildings and “not crashing, breaking and taking over”.

Ablyazov’s remarks came after earlier this month, the Director of the Kazakh Insitute of World Economy and Politics Yerzhan Saltybaev said that the influence on the demonstrations of people such as the banker is very limited despite his massive financial resources. It is to note that Ablyazov is a former banker and government minister who has claimed to be the leader of the Kazakh opposition movement. 

Meanwhile, nearly 225 people have died in the demonstrations. Kazakhstan was hit by a wave of protests triggered by a two-fold increase in fuel prices, but they turned violent when protesters in Almaty stormed the presidential residence and the mayor’s office and set both on fire, as per media reports. Initially, protests started with people in Zhanaozen and Aktau opposing fuel prices hike for liquefied natural gas. The unrest then spread to other cities including the nation’s most populous city, Almaty. Clashes between protesters and security forces took place in Almaty on January 4 to 5, before further escalating into a violent riot. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev even called for troops by the Russian-led alliance Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

(Image: AP)