At the very beginning of the new year, Kazakhstan witnessed the largest-scale unrest since its independence 30 years ago. In a matter of a few days, a protest triggered by a price hike in residential gas quickly escalated into political unrest sweeping across the country, and has steadily headed in the direction of a color revolution in the following days.
For many years, the US-led West has been waging a wave of color revolutions around the world with the sole objective of overthrowing unruly regimes and upending out-of-favor countries in the name of “democracy, freedom, human rights”. By planting the western democratic values and fostering pro-West forces, it would easily manipulate those countries and have them serve its own agenda of preserving or seeking hegemony.
The unrest in Kazakhstan in the past few days has shown many familiar maneuvers of the color revolution. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made it clear that it was an organized, premeditated, hostile aggression crafted and waged by overseas forces. Russian President Putin pointed out more bluntly that he was reminded of the “Square Revolution” in Ukraine.
Ever since Kazakhstan gained independence 30 years ago, external forces have never given up their attempt at a “color revolution” in the country and have been tirelessly and subtly promoting the American-style democracy and values of freedom in order to remould the country with a “democratic reform”. Statistics show that there are nearly 40,000 NGOs backed by the US-led West in Kazakhstan, including about 16,000 active ones, engaged in a broad range of areas from the economy, culture and environmental protection to charity and education. The most famous two are America’s National Endowment for Democracy and the Soros Foundation.
These NGOs have been pouring money to support pro-US forces, especially targeting key groups and figures. In 2020, the National Endowment for Democracy spent USD 1.08 million in Kazakhstan, twice as much as in 2018. When engaging and cooperating with Kazakh media, think tanks, and cultural and educational organizations, they spare no effort in peddling the western values, concepts and institutions and instigating public discontent, which has seriously undermined the peace and stability in the country. Those organizations are the eyes, ears and claws conducting ideological infiltration, fostering pro-US forces, and collecting intelligence in Kazakhstan for the US-led West.
As early as the middle of last month, before the riot broke out, the American embassy in Kazakhstan issued one safety warning after another about protests or even violent conflicts in cities such as Nursultan, Alma-Ata and Chimkent, urging American citizens to step up safety precautions. Many wondered at America’s timely and accurate superpower of “seeing through the future”, an ability that’s only possible with inside traders.
That explains why stashes of weapons suddenly emerged out of nowhere the moment the riot began. They were shipped to the site of the riot and handed out at the rioters’ disposal, otherwise, such a large number of rioters wouldn’t have been able to attack the government organs and key infrastructure facilities in such an organized and planned manner.
The US-led western countries still prop themselves up as the founder of democracy today, blind to the fact that their “beacon of democracy” has long lost luster. Last year, the storming of the Capitol, the debacle from Kabul and the rushed-through Summit for Democracy were three fiascos signifying the incessant decline of American democracy. They showed the world that the US has long fallen down the pedestal of democracy, and heralded the inevitable failure of the “revolution drama” staged by the US-led West in Kazakhstan.
The political turmoil in Kazakhstan was the first “black swan” in 2022, which added fuel to the flame of the raging pandemic and mounting economic difficulties that the Kazakh people are grappling with, and also sounded a warning bell for other countries in the region. Fortunately, the Kazakh authorities reacted decisively and resolutely to the riot and kept it from escalating out of control.
Editor's note: The author is Zong Jiahe, an observer of international issues. This article is originally published on huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
