After an accidental and therefore all the more tragic death of famous Kazakh figure skater Denis Ten, Minister of the Interior Kalmukhanbet Kasymov has become the focus of an information attack. However, the General was not asked to retire from his post. Why, we wonder?

As we recall, Kazakhstan hasn’t seen such big-scale «attacks» against the person in power for a long time. The Minister’s opponents and ill-wishers inside the ruling elite and the state apparatus, a number of the media and internet resources, the sincerely angry Kazakh citizens, certain nongovernmental organizations and bloggers have taken a part in it.

Judging by the scale of the civil indignance, the severity and the non-compromising nature of the accusations, Kasymov has turned up in the «right» place at the «right» time. Consider that the Colonel-General has been accused of every crime under the sun — the numerous failures of his agency, the frequent abuse of authority on the part of police officers, their corruptness, unprofessionalism, and personal indiscreetness.

However, the attack has turned out to be futile. In his annual Presidential Address to the people of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev has directly and in no uncertain terms supported Kalmukhanbet Kasymov.

Here is what the President said live on October 5, 2018, in Astana in front of the respectable audience.

«I consider General Kasymov the most experienced police officer in our country. I believe him to be an honest and decent man and think he himself will decide what to do with our police force. You already have some ideas, isn’t that so?»

To which, the Minister of the Interior has obviously answered «yes».

We believe Nursultan Nazarbayev’s reply to the consolidated demands of the civil society as well as Kasymov’s opponents and ill-wishers in the ruling elite and the state apparatus has been predetermined. Among other things, due to the reasons tied to the President himself.

The thing is that, in his political practices, Nursultan Nazarbayev cannot stand to meet someone halfway, let alone a civil or a group opinion. He will certainly consider it and will usually respond to the demands of large groups of the Kazakh citizens or certain influential figures but always with a significant delay. He does so in order to tear up the connection between an event and his decision thus demonstrating his independence from anything and anyone as well as the resilience to any external pressure.

Therefore, the informational attack against the Minister of the Interior has been doomed to fail from the very beginning since its main addressee (the President) would never succumb to the pressure. Of course, in a given time (say a year and a half or in a year) Nazarbayev could consider firing Kasymov especially since there is a lot to fire him for and there is a lot of those wishing to see him go. But note that, in this case, there is one more factor at play that the Minister’s opponents have failed to consider.

Kazakhstan’s relative political stability and the long-time continuous Presidency of Nursultan Nazarbayev have led most Kazakhs citizens to getting used to the existing order of things, and many citizens of 40 years of age and less cannot even imagine anything different. However, the President, due to his age and political experience, knows full well that force is the most persuasive argument in any political, social, or economic confrontation both inside the country and abroad.

For this reason, it is extremely important for Nursultan Nazarbayev that the Ministry of the Interior is governed by someone whom he trusts. Someone who will not go behind the President’s back and, most importantly, is capable of acting tough and without looking back in critical circumstances that include human rights observance, numerous victims among the population, the demands of the law, etc.

This is dictated, first of all, by the fact that the Ministry of the Interior has more gunmen that the army and the other law-enforcement agencies including the state security service all together.

And Kalmukhanbet Kasymov is the person who has repeatedly proven his loyalty to the President. In particular, when, on December 16, 2011, he issued the order to shoot up the Zhanaozen oil-workers on strike. It is this circumstance that makes the acting Minister of the Interior invincible especially under the pressure from the civil society and his opponents inside the ruling elite and the state apparatus.

Still, rest assured that Nazarbayev will certainly throw Kasymov under the bus if he believes it to be to his advantage. However, this is not happening now and is unlikely to happen before the next Presidential elections.