Kazakhstan: Protests, Coverage, & Uncertainty

The recent upheaval in the Central Asian country has demonstrated serious public opposition to the leadership of the Nur Otan party, but not without major uncertainties about the future of the country.

Media outlets from around the world have taken to reporting on the recent protests that emerged in Kazakhstan, all with their own understandings and portrayals of the events themselves. Of course, these same ideas that are pushed surrounding the meaning or ‘goals’ of the protests are directly linked to the political and economic circumstances that have historically existed.

Photo of Almaty, Kazakhstan by Alexander Serzhantov on Unsplash

When the protests first materialized on January 2, 2022, many mainstream Western outlets — including but not limited to CNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, and more — described the protests in a fairly generic manner in the context of the post-Soviet world. This included emphasizing the disdain that the general public feels about domestic political leadership, as well as exploiting any possible link that the government in question may have to geopolitical rivals and its socialist past. However, references were consistently made to the genuine reasoning behind the outbreak of protests, that being the sudden doubling of the price of liquefied…