Professor Luca Anceschi discusses recent events in Kazakhstan. We will never know if it was a revolution because the violence that ensued stopped the natural organic evolution of the protest movement into something that could have changed the political system. It's been a good week for Putin and a watershed moment for Kazakh-Russia relations. We're going to see a structural change where multi-vectorism will become a thing of the past, as Nursultan moves closer to Moscow and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which Putin views as an instrument of geopolitical domination. He believes what occurred was a result of a domestic coup or elite rivalry situation, as in the past it was discovered President Tokayev's phone was being surveilled using Pegasus spyware. We discuss Nazarbayev's cult of personality, what consequences there might be for the region, and the road ahead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQQqj4y0Zw

Journalist and researcher Paolo Sorbello gives his take on events in Kazakhstan. He says that what is going on has a lot to do with inequality and lack of representation, with inflation and fuel prices being the prime mover. He comments on the effects of the pandemic which have led to millions of unemployed. The scale of the peaceful protests was unprecedented and he believes it is not yet possible to determine the source of the violent protests. He points out the conflicting narratives of the government itself, that of an internal coup and foreign intervention. His response to accusations of "Color Revolution" is "which color is it"? He argues that protestors did not handle the weapons well and that the government put down the violence quickly, which suggests that there wasn't an organized domestic or external group, although it was strange that authorities allowed violent protestors to move into areas that should have been cordoned off. He thinks Nazarbayev and Tokayev are too wise to provoke such urban violence and believes the status quo will continue. Concerning the future of Kazakhstan, he fears freedoms will be targeted: https://odysee.com/@GeopoliticsAndEmpire:f/PaoloSorbello-Kazakhstan:d

The Geopolitics & Empire Podcast's host, Hrvoje Morić, conducts his first-ever solo podcast covering recent events in Kazakhstan. He lived in Kazakhstan from 2017-2020 and was technically employed by Nursultan Nazarbayev. He gives a nuanced overview of the situation, exploring the different possibilities for the unrest, ranging from: difficult economic conditions, dystopian medical restrictions, Color Revolution, internal coup, and false flag operation: https://youtu.be/xp2F8lnaOgg