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Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has given a lengthy interview in which he discusses what he sees as the origins of the “Bloody January” protests of 2022 as well as the threat of dual power systems.

Speaking to the state-run Egemen Qazaqstan newspaper, which published the interview on January 3, Toqaev said the protests that began in the southwestern town Zhanaozen on January 2, 2022, following a sharp rise in fuel prices and which quickly spread to other cities, including Almaty, were instigated by an unidentified “rogue group.”

Toqaev’s shoot-to-kill order to quell the unrest led to the deaths of more than 230 protesters, and the Kazakh president has been criticized for not living up to his promise to the public to answer questions about the incident.

The Kazakh authorities have prosecuted several high-ranking officials on charges that they attempted to seize power during the protests, with some removed from office or sentenced to prison, and others acquitted.

Many were seen to be allies of Toqaev’s predecessor, long-serving Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbaev.

When asked what caused the unrest, Toqaev initially cited “socio-economic problems accumulated over the years,” which had led to stagnation and undermined faith in the government.

However, Toqaev then suggested that “some influential people” did not like the changes to the country’s political scene after he was appointed as acting president by Nazarbaev in 2019 and later that year elected as president.

Toqaev said the unknown people perceived the change “as a threat” to the power structure after decades of rule by Nazarbaev, and then “decided to turn back the face of reform and destroy everything in order to return to the old situation that was convenient for them.”

“This group of high-ranking officials had a huge influence on the power structures and the criminal world,” Toqaev alleged. “That’s why they decided to seize power by force.”

Toqaev, citing investigations by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, said the unidentified group began “preparations” about six months before the nationwide demonstrations in January 2022, when the government made what he called “an ill-conceived, illegal decision to sharply increase the price of liquefied gas.”

From there, Toqaev alleged, “extremists, criminal groups, and religious extremists” worked together to stage a coup. When the protests broke out in January 2022, Toqaev claimed that 20,000 “terrorists” had entered the country.

Experts have widely dismissed suggestions of foreign involvement in the mass protests.

Aside from about 10 members of the fundamentalist Islamic group Yakyn Inkar — which is considered a banned extremist group in Kazakhstan — who were arrested in connection with the protests, no religious groups have been singled out for alleged involvement in the protests.

The goal of the alleged coup plotters, Toqaev said, was to set up a dual power structure that would compete with the government.

“I openly told Nazarbaev that the political arrogance of his close associates almost destroyed the country,” Toqaev said, without expounding on who the associates might be.

Toqaev had not previously mentioned speaking with Nazarbaev about the mass protests.

Toqaev also suggested that Kazakhstan, which has come under criticism for its imprisonment of journalists and civil and political activists, does not have any political prisoners.

When asked about political prisoners, Toqaev said only that “our legislation does not contain a single decree, a single law, a single regulatory document that provides a basis for prosecuting citizens for their political views.”

For there to be political persecution, according to Toqaev, there would need to be “censorship, special laws, and punitive bodies” in place.

Toqaev also appeared to subtly criticize Nazarbaev, who became head of Soviet Kazakhstan in 1990 and became Kazakhstan’s first president after the country became independent in 1991.

Nazarbaev served as president until he resigned in 2019, although he held the title of “Leader of the Nation” from 2010 to 2020 and also served as chairman of the Security Council from 1991 to 2022. Nazarbaev has since been stripped of those roles and titles.

While discussing Nazarbaev, Toqaev said that “everyone knows his contribution to the formation of an independent state of Kazakhstan. He is a person who deserves a fair historical evaluation.”

But the current Kazakh president also said that “there should be no senior or junior president in the country.”

“Go away, don’t beg!” Toqaev said. “Citizens who will be in charge of the country in the future should learn from this situation and stay away from such things and think only about the interests of the state and the prosperity of society.”