Kazakhstan detains former head of national security as Putin and Kazakh president discuss restoring ‘order’
Tokayev told Putin the situation in his country was “progressing on the way to stabilization” and expressed his “appreciation” for the deployment of a Russia-led military bloc to Kazakhstan to try and control violence on the streets, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.Meanwhile, former head of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee Karim Massimov and some other unnamed officials have been detained on suspicion of treason, the country’s National Security Committee announced, according to state media Khabar 24 on Saturday.Ukibai said Nazarbayev had held several phone calls with the leaders of countries friendly to Kazakhstan.”The leader of the nation calls to unite around President of Kazakhstan to overcome current challenges and to ensure safety in the country,” he added.It comes after Tokayev said in a televised address on Wednesday that he had taken over from Nazarbayev as head of the country’s Security Council.Earlier this week a statue of Nazarbayev was torn down by protesters in the town of Taldykorgan, in the country’s southeast Almaty region.Prime Minister Askar Mamin resigned amid the protests. Alikhan Smailov was appointed acting prime minister, and members of the government will continue to serve until the formation of the new cabinet, according to a statement published on the presidential website Wednesday.Nazarbayev announced his resignation as president in March 2019, after nearly three decades in office. The former Communist Party official was the last of the leaders who were running the 15 Soviet republics when the USSR collapsed in 1991.The country’s capital was named after him following his resignation.Nazarbayev ran Kazakhstan as a typical autocrat: The State Department’s 2018 human rights report noted Kazakhstan’s 2015 presidential election, in which Nazarbayev received 98% of votes cast, “was marked by irregularities and lacked genuine political competition.”CNN’s Helen Regan contributed reporting.
