2022 Kazakhstan protests and riots

[Bakhtiyark]

Guess we have a pretty rough start for 2022.
I don't know where to start but i feel the need to get this out of my system.
As i currently live in Aktau, protests here were relatively organized and peaceful.
Even banners and pictures with our "Great Leader" were not defaced or torn down.

As a native of Almaty i've been quite distressed to see rioting and looting, that i feel hijacked otherwise peaceful protests.
But those did not surprise me, for first Almaty is a dozen time bigger city than Aktau. It attracts both internal and external migrants. And most importantly it has a massive populations of déclassé elements. These elements often rent flophouses in districts like Zarya Vostoka, Malaya Stanitsa and Shanyrak for 15-20k KZT (30-40USD/month) while living in the same city where people they may encounter everyday wear expensive watches or ride Maseratis costing 200mln. KZT. Some of them are oralmans from non-ex-USSR states who have much harder time integrating into cosmopolitan nature of the city and feel they have been "injustly treated" and excluded from better opportunities by the State.

This extreme wealth inequality is largely to blame that huge rage has been building up in city's lumpen for decades finally exploded into three days of horror.

[OWNER]

No comments.

https://youtu.be/hGTDX0KXJj4

[OWNER]

All my photos and videos are here

[AreWeThereYet?]

@OWNER, I was about to comment that your video reminded me of places like Brixton and Tottenham in the summer of 2011 (boarded up shops, cops in riot gear around, bits of glass and metal everywhere, torched cars) until it got to the (?) Presidential Palace. To see such a huge building completely charred was a massive shock. Things must've been wild, there.

[Hound_Dog]

Lets hope everything settles down before the riding season

[ccc]

Is the country still open for tourists?

[steven]

Is the country still open for tourists?

It wasn't open for tourists before the riots due to corona. No change in policy.

[Nikopol]

Is the country still open for tourists?

It wasn't open for tourists before the riots due to corona. No change in policy.

We do have confirmation about visa-free being resumed since Jan 1st. I tried to write to Border service after Consulate basically just told me they are not sure and they just politelly answered me with their phone number and current rules which however contradict visa-free regime, so honestly I am just waiting for someone to try it and see what happens.

[sebhoff]

Here's something that might offer some answers - but I obviously I don't know how it translates into reality on the ground: https://new.wpk.kz/covid-19_kz_eng

So basically, visa-free travel is claimed to have resumed for 54 countries, but IDC approval is still necessary. This requirement does however not apply to citizens of those 30 countries that have direct flight connections with Kazakhstan - and only if they fly in. "Tourism" is expressly mentioned as a reason to enter the country.

Sebastian

[Nikopol]

Here's something that might offer some answers - but I obviously I don't know how it translates into reality on the ground: https://new.wpk.kz/covid-19_kz_eng

So basically, visa-free travel is claimed to have resumed for 54 countries, but IDC approval is still necessary. This requirement does however not apply to citizens of those 30 countries that have direct flight connections with Kazakhstan - and only if they fly in. "Tourism" is expressly mentioned as a reason to enter the country.

Sebastian

There is one more part:

Nevertheless, if foreign citizens of these countries cross the RoK border by land transport (train, auto), IDC permission is mandatory.


So if I am understanding it, land border can be crossed if IDC persmission is present and valid?

This is why the official notice on Border service website, that I was reffered to as well, is absolutely contradictory to these information from consulates, embassies and agencies. That one for instance makes no distinction between flight and land crossing and bans virtually everyone unless they fall into one of specific categories, where tourism is not present at all. Oh well, central Asia gonna central Asia...