Pro-Russian separatists raise their heads in northern Kazakhstan

Baku/01.04.23/Turan: 19 activists in the northern Kazakhstan city of Petropavlovsk declared "independence" from Kazakhstan and convened the so-called People's Council, Arbat.media reports.

"We, the free people, men and women, working people of Petropavlovsk city of SKR, in view of the fictitious legal basis of the corporation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, because of the creation of unfavorable living conditions for the people, and also because of incompetence and dishonor of its agents, declare total distrust to all founders and servants of the management of our patrimony and resources. We, the people, proclaim our independence, autonomy and sovereignty," the separatists declare.

They reportedly elected a chairman and secretary at a meeting on 19 March 2023, adopted a so-called "declaration", a "draft charter", "symbols for the People's Council" and a seal.

Those gathered spoke out against Kazakhstan's system of education, food and medicine. "The successful system of Soviet education has been replaced by a surrogate based on foreign standards with destructive textbooks...," the statement said.

The text includes similar criticisms of other areas in the Kazakh state.

In August 2022, a court in North Kazakhstan Region sentenced two residents to five years of imprisonment for allegedly calling for separatism in a video chat room. There have previously been harsh convictions of other separatists in that country. In all cases, the perpetrators belonged to the Russian ethnic group of the Kazakh nation.

There have also been convictions of separatists with Russian first and last names in 2017 and 2019.

Article 180 "Separatist activity", which appeared in the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan in 2014, has been quite active recently. Participants in virtual fights in social networks arbitrarily "move" the borders of Kazakhstan according to their mind, for which they then receive real terms of isolation from society, - reports Liter.kz

"In general, an average age of the separatists is 40-50 years, which means that all the people are mature. Their calls are similar: violation of Kazakhstan's territorial integrity. All of them still dream about revival of the USSR, people with imperial, colonial mentality. When they express their thoughts among themselves, sitting in a kitchen, it is one thing, and another thing when they publicly begin to call and convince others of their ideas. This is an act that is criminally punishable. We have a unitary state, it is enshrined in the Constitution, so any provocation must be stopped", Petropavlovsk City Court judge Almas Zhumagazin told the newspaper.

On March 30, 2023 the Department of the National Security Committee of the North Kazakhstan region initiated a pre-trial investigation under Article 180 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (propaganda of separatism in a group of people using mass media) concerning the fact of posting of a video clip on social networks about the creation of the "National Council of Workers of Petropavlovsk".

Procedural prosecutors have been appointed for the case. As part of the pre-trial investigation, operational and investigative measures are being carried out, including searches and seizures, and appropriate forensic examinations have been appointed, the Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan said.

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Russian state's foreign policy concept of action, which emphasizes the Kremlin's responsibility to "protect the Russian world".  It is a new notion enshrined in Russia's top-level document that could spur separatism in all former Soviet countries.

*Petropavlovsk is located in northern Kazakhstan (the administrative centre of North Kazakhstan region), 40 km south of the border with Russia. Its population is over 200,000, of which 58% are Russians.

The city's leading enterprise is the Petropavlovsk heavy engineering plant, a manufacturer of oil and gas equipment.--0--