Officials in Kazakhstan have taken into custody a former minister of interior on Tuesday, for his involvement in the violent police response to protests in the country in 2022.
The top lawyer’s office said Erlan Turgumbayev was arrested on Monday for misusing his power and causing serious harm while harshly stopping riots. The government of Kazakhstan is responsible for overseeing the country’s police.
Unrest began in Zhanaozen city on January. On February 2, 2022, people in Kazakhstan protested because the price of gas for their cars went up a lot.
The protests turned into complaints about corruption and unfairness in the economy under the former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. Critics say he has been making money from the country’s energy wealth since he became leader in 1991.
Nazarbayez quit being the president in 2019 but still had a lot of control during the protests as the leader of Kazakhstan’s security council.
In Almaty, the biggest city in the country, protests became violent and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave orders to shoot people as demonstrators attacked government buildings. Officials said that 238 people died during the violent situation.
Tokayev made a lot of changes, like only allowing the president to have one 7-year term. He also took Nazarbayev out of his jobs as head of the security council and the capital city, which had been changed to Nur-Sultan in Nazarbayev’s honor, changed back to its old name of Astana.
Turgumbayev was fired from his job one month after the chaos.
Tag: Kazakhstan
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Ex-interior minister detained in Kazakhstan in relation to riots that claimed 238 lives
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Kazakhstan: Massive methane leak persisted for months
Last year, a really big methane leak happened at a faraway well in Kazakhstan. New research shared with the media has confirmed it was one of the worst ever.
Around 127,000 tonnes of gas escaped when a blowout caused a fire that lasted for over six months.
Methane is a stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Buzachi Neft, the company that owns the well, says they did not leak a lot of methane.
The amount of pollution from the leak is like the pollution from driving 717,000 cars for a year.
Manfredi Caltagirone, who heads the UN’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, said that the size and how long the leak has been happening is really uncommon. “It is very large. ”
The leak started on 9 June 2023 when a problem happened while drilling for oil in the Mangistau region, southwest Kazakhstan. It caused a fire that burned until the end of the year.
It was only stopped on December 25th, 2023. Local officials told the news that they are currently using cement to close the well.
Natural gas is mostly made of methane, a gas that you can’t see.
However, when sunlight goes through a group of methane, it makes a one-of-a-kind mark that certain satellites can follow.
The French company Kayrros was the first to study this methane leak. The Netherlands Institute for Space Research and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain have confirmed their analysis.
Scientists saw lots of methane in the air 115 times between June and December when they looked at the satellite information.
According to the readings, they found out that 127,000 tonnes of methane came out of this one well.
This could be the second biggest man-made methane leak ever.
Luis Guanter from the Polytechnic University of Valencia said that only the Nord Stream sabotage could have caused a bigger leak.
In September 2022, two pipelines that carry Russian gas to Germany were damaged by explosions under the water. This caused a release of up to 230,000 tonnes of methane gas into the air.
The International Energy Agency says that methane is to blame for around 30% of the increase in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.
Satellite readings can sometimes be influenced by things like clouds, but scientists are very confident that a lot of methane came out of this one well.
“MrGuanter found methane gas clouds using five different satellite instruments that are sensitive to methane. ” “Each tool checks for methane in its own way, but we got the same results from all of them. ”
The Department of Ecology in the Mangistau region said that the amount of methane in the air was too high 10 times between 9 June and 21 September.
It was also reported that after the accident, the amount of methane in the air was 50 times more than what is allowed.
However, Buzachi Neft, the company from Kazakhstan that owns the well, says that it did not release a lot of methane gas.
The company says there was only a very small amount of gas in the well, and any leaked methane would have burned off when it came out of the hole.
It also thinks that only water vapor escaped into the air, creating big white clouds that could be seen from space.
“We have handled the situation carefully,” said Daniyar Duisembayev, the company’s deputy director for strategic development, to the media. -
At least 45 coal miners in Kazakhstan killed by blast
On Sunday, officials in Kazakhstan stated that a blaze started by a methane gas explosion in a mine resulted in the tragic deaths of at least 45 coal miners.
The Ministry for Emergency Situations said there was an explosion at the Kostenko mine in the Karaganda region. This caused a fire to start on Saturday. The mine is owned by the state, according to Kazinform news agency.
According to the ministry, over 200 people were taken out of the mine to a safe place. They are still searching for one miner who is missing.
The mine is owned by ArcelorMittal, a company from Luxembourg that makes a lot of steel. It is managed by ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a company that operates many coal and iron ore mines in Kazakhstan.
The company has stopped working at its eight mines in the Karaganda region and the General Prosecutor’s Office has started a criminal investigation.
According to a statement after the explosion, ArcelorMittal said it had agreed with the Kazakh government to give ownership of ArcelorMittal Temirtau to Kazakhstan and wants to finish this transfer quickly.
Both sides are highly focused on achieving a result that is best for the workers at the steel plant and the iron-ore and coal mines, as well as the communities that depend on these operations.
On Sunday, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, announced a day of mourning for the people who died.
The mining industry in Kazakhstan, which is worth billions of dollars, made up about 17% of the country’s total economic output in 2021. This information comes from the US International Trade Administration. -
The Kazakh president on Russians evading mobilization: ‘We must look after them’
Tens of thousands of people are trying to find shelter in Kazakhstan as many leave Russia in response to the announcement of a partial troop enlistment order, according to officials.
However, there are no intentions to close the border by the Almaty government.
The sudden influx of Russians, almost 100,000, have crossed the border since the mobilisation announcement, the government said, has left hotels and hostels full and rent skyrocketing.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, whose administration has refused to support what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, urged patience and tolerance.
“A lot of people from Russia have come here over the last few days,” he said in a speech on Tuesday.
“Most of them were forced to leave by the desperate situation.”
“We must take care of them and ensure their safety. This is a political and humanitarian matter,” Tokayev said.
Kazakhstan, home to a significant ethnic Russian minority and where the Russian language is spoken widely, does not require Russians to have a visa or a passport to enter the country.