Former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank Mukhtar Ablyazov sentenced to 20 years in prison for $ 7.5 billion in damages
A former Kazakh banker convicted of embezzlement has declared himself the leader of protests in the former Soviet republic, Reuters reported. Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, who fled to the French capital Paris, says he is constantly talking to protesters.
“I see myself as the leader of the opposition. Every day protesters call me and ask: “What should we do? We are here: what to do? ”The banker announced and stated that he was ready to return to his country, 24 Chasa writes.
He was adamant that the events in the country were the result of internal processes and that the West had nothing to do with the crisis, which began as dissatisfaction with fuel prices and escalated due to other long-hidden socio-political processes.
Ablyazov insisted that the West should enter the battle for his country.
“If not, then Kazakhstan will become Belarus and Putin will methodically impose his program – the re-creation of a structure like the Soviet Union,” Ablyazov said in Russian from Paris, insisting: “The West must separate Kazakhstan from Russia.”
In 2017, an Almaty court sentenced Ablyazov to 20 years in prison for embezzling funds from BTA Bank, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, for a total of more than $ 7.5 billion in damages from the former banker. However, the revolutionary banker claimed that the sentence was political and became an opposition activist. His Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement was banned by the authorities in 2018. A year later, he was identified as one of the driving forces behind the protests in Nur Sultan and Almaty during the presidential election.
At the same time, Kazakh President Kasam-Jomart Tokayev said there would be no talks with protesters after days of unrest, vowing to destroy “armed bandits” who had attacked the country.
“Terrorists continue to damage property … and use weapons against civilians. “I have issued an order to the law enforcement agencies to shoot and kill without warning,” Tokayev stressed. He thanked the presidents of Russia, China and Turkey for their support, with special thanks to Vladimir Putin for sending troops.
Russia has announced that the commander of their airborne forces has headed a mission in Kazakhstan. General Andrei Serdyukov also commanded the group of the Russian army in Syria. The Russian paratroopers have already taken full control of the airport in Almaty, the largest in Kazakhstan, and are “assisting law enforcement to maintain law and order.”
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