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Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakh facing a troubled world

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Kassym-Jomart Tokayev may have been President of Kazakhstan since 2019, but he did step down on Wednesday.

It was then that he took over the role of head of state security, replacing 81-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former president who has led a major Asian middle-income economy for 30 years.

Nazarbayev resigned from his post in 2019 but continued to oversee the security services (with his role as “father of the country”) until protests about oil prices this week It reached its climax in the history of post-Soviet Kazakhstan. It is now rumored that he has fled the country, leaving Tokayev to flee Kazakhstan help from a friend – Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tokayev, Nazarbayev’s aide, never appeared to be a temporary man. That has now changed. After working to establish a 19m base, the President unveiled his embassy this week, summoning the allied forces and ordering them to “shooting death without warning”To anyone who misappropriates state property or displays cruelty to citizens.

Tokayev was no ordinary man. Born in the capital, Alma-Ata (now Almaty), in the southeast, was raised intellectually. His father was well known author of police fiction and his mother worked at the Institute of Foreign Languages. He attended high school and completed his studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, the birthplace of Soviet and post-Soviet diplomats.

He himself became a successful ambassador, serving in the USSR embassies in Singapore and Beijing, during Tiananmen Square protests and massacres in 1989, as well as in foreign service in Moscow. In 1993, he was overthrown by Nazarbayev, who had been extradited to Kazakhstan as deputy prime minister and prime minister, forcing him to be placed second in command of the UN Secretary-General.

A speaker of five languages, including Mandarin, spoke to the entire country in Russian and Kazakh during the crisis. Tokayev’s embassy skills and good manners are not criticized even by his rivals.

Victor Khrapunov, a former Almaty mayor who was a close ally of Tokayev and a rival for the prime minister’s seat, said: “When Tokayev was in the foreign ministry, he was in his natural state. He seemed to be well-chosen as a minister capable of overseeing world affairs. But we cannot think of him as a Prime Minister, not even a President. “

Also, his polished appearance did not attract as many people as Nazarbayev, who began his career as a blacksmith. “Tokayev, a highly educated, talented professional, lacks the qualifications of the staff and the general administration – all of which was good for Nazarbayev,” says Ben Godwin, chief executive officer of the Prism company.

However Tokayev differs from those who led him in another, more lucrative way: obviously, he does not engage in business. This would help him to gain the trust of the people, whose frustrations with Nazarbayev’s era increased as their lives progressed even when their leader’s family numbered into the billions. The dispute culminated this week, sparking the burning of Nazarbayev’s house in Almaty and the demolition of his statue in his hometown.

Tokayev alone reports The business venture has been owned by a small oil company, Gryadovoye, who is said to have been offered the post of prime minister and donated to his son, Timur, and nephew, through their company Abi Petroleum.

“The interesting thing about Tokayev is that he is not known to have trade in the country or abroad,” said Livia Paggi, chief of political risks at GPW based in London. “All other major politicians have big business interests; he is the only one who does not. There are no corruption cases against him. “

This will be difficult now, as the economy is still in the hands of the loyal Nazarbayev people. The former leader’s alarm has been at the forefront of the oil and gas industry. If Tokayev resigns in the past, he will have to spend the next ten years fighting against the loyalists, removing them with his own, dismissing them or using his diplomatic skills to deal with them.

During his tenure so far, Tokayev has not undergone major changes, instead focusing on issues such as competition law and agricultural barriers in the agricultural sector, where he has seen a solution to rising prices and rising food prices. ‘streets. “Critics can say that they focus on technology because they did not have the authority to do anything. But they believe it will be acceptable to his government if he can improve the economy,” Godwin said.

Although Tokayev has appealed to many of the protesters this week, including lowering gas prices and removing the government, he should not think of himself as a human being, Godwin warns. “He is more advanced than Nazarbayev. He understands that there are problems in this system that need to be addressed – especially the economy. However, I do not see any evidence that making Kazakhstan a democratic country is the most important thing for him.”

nastassia.astrasheuskaya@ft.com

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