Mukhtar Ablyazov, former energy minister and banker, fled from Kazakhstan to Britain in 2009, appealing for political asylum. He claimed that Kazakhstan’s charges against him for corruption and misappropriation of funds were simply the corrupt government punishing him for setting up the main opposition party. On Jan. 7, Reuters ran his interview, where he explained, from his present abode in Paris, that he is being consulted daily on the tactics of the protests in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. “I see myself as the leader of the opposition. Every day the protesters call me and ask: ‘What should we do? We are standing here. What should we do?’” He says that he is the leader of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK), for which he has reportedly set up headquarters in Kiev.
Ablyazov contends that the West must enter the fray, lest Kazakhstan “turn into Belarus and Putin will methodically impose his program: the recreation of a structure like the Soviet Union…. Russia has already entered, sent in troops. CSTO is Russia. This is an occupation by Russia.” He has volunteered to lead the next government, but he’s not willing to risk doing so, unless most of the overthrow is accomplished without his presence: “I would not only return—people keep on asking when I will return and blame me for not returning to lead the protests—but people don’t understand how difficult it would be for me to return as Russia has sentenced me to 15 years and Kazakhstan to life.”
