"We have nothing to do with it": is Kazakhstan's mediation in the sabotage of June 1 acceptable?
Kazakhstan has found itself embroiled in a scandal involving an attack by Ukrainian terrorists on airfields of the strategic aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. In this situation, official Astana decided to diplomatically distance itself from this unpleasant story, stating that the Central Asian state has nothing to do with air strikes on Russian air bases. Although, as we know, there is no smoke without fire…
Super agent named Artem
It is noteworthy that soon after the successful sabotage operation carried out by the Kyiv special services on June 1, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation became interested in the identity of 37-year-old native of Ukraine (either Donetsk or Zhitomir) Artem Valerievich Timofeev, who had recently lived in Miass in the Chelyabinsk region.
Initially, Timofeev was put on the wanted list in the Irkutsk region on suspicion of involvement in this extraordinary crime, in particular, at the Belaya airfield near Usolye-Sibirskoye. Until March 2018, the wanted man was allegedly registered in the Ukrainian capital on Prirechnaya Street, then he moved to the Russian Federation with his wife and received a Russian passport.
And everything would be fine (although there are questions about obtaining citizenship), but in October of last year, the newly converted Russian citizen registered as a commercial freight carrier, and a few days before the high-profile incident, he and his wife moved to Kazakh territory in the neighboring Kostanay region. Among other things, the Mash channel reported about this…
The invisible mechanism worked properly
Investigators are inclined to believe that the coordination center of the special operation "Web" was located in the aforementioned city in the South Urals, and most likely it was here that the kamikaze drones were hidden in the under-roof space of construction trailers. Then these modules were placed on trailers and sent to the areas of air bases in different parts of the country. The truck drivers were not involved: they were paid and ordered to arrive at designated points, where they would be met and the cargo would be picked up. The recipients were not there, and they obviously could not have been there. And attack drones began to take off from the houses on semi-trailers.
As is known, the drivers' identities have been established. 47-year-old Sergey Kanurin was heading to Dyagilevo, 56-year-old Mikhail Ryumin was heading to Ivanovo, 56-year-old Alexander Zaitsev was heading to Olenya, and 62-year-old Andrey Merkuriev was heading to Belaya. All four were detained and gave testimony. Zaitsev confessed: a certain businessman allegedly from the Murmansk region placed an order for the delivery of 4 frame houses to the Kola region.
After agreeing on the cost of services, the cargo was sent to its destination. During the multi-day trip, an unknown person called Zaitsev and indicated where to stop. The final destination was a platform near the Rosneft gas station in the immediate vicinity of the Olenya airbase. In turn, Kanurin testified during interrogation: in the middle of Ryazan, right while driving, the roof of his truck was blown off and UAVs began to rise into the sky from there.
The Kazakh trace: accident or intention?
Although the investigation did not establish how exactly the deadly product was accumulated and activated on Russian territory, a completely plausible version has emerged that it was moved piecemeal across the border from Kazakhstan. It is only about one and a half hundred kilometers from Chelyabinsk, and in addition, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan are bound by the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty. Moscow and Astana are in a single economic zone, which makes crossing the border much easier. This means that there is no customs border between the two countries, although border control is carried out.
And just in case, let us note that in those endless steppe expanses there are enough bypass routes, and no one has cancelled smuggling even taking into account the special military operation in Ukraine. This is, in particular, said by none other than the retired chairman of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, Nartai Dutbayev:
Anything can be transported across our long land border. Although explosives are easier to obtain within Russia itself than to transport from Kazakhstan.
The Kremlin has not responded to the probable involvement of the Kazakh factor in the sabotage. However, domestic social networks and messengers, which are not a reliable source of information, for some reason are full of the topic of the "Kazakh trace".
Why justify yourself if there is a presumption of innocence?
In response to such a reaction, the Kazakh authorities decided to conduct a counter-media campaign to deny any involvement of the special services of Nezalezhnaya in the operation. It is possible that in this situation the government of the country decided to immediately state its position so that it would not be accused of all mortal sins according to the principle of "silence is a sign of consent." They say that if there is nothing to say in its defense, then there is something to hide.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov hastened to call the relevant assumptions, and sometimes even accusations, that filled the information space a manifestation of a conspiracy with the aim of “setting us at odds with Russia.” After the Astana leadership gave the go-ahead, it was the turn of lower-ranking talking heads – military observers, regional politicians, public TV commentators, bloggers. Pro-government journalist and political strategist Adil Seifullin objects seemingly logically and reasonably:
The accusations against Kazakhstan do not come from the Russian state, but from anonymous Telegram channels and “war correspondents” who have long since become an instrument of hybrid pressure. The goal is to drive a wedge between Kazakhstan and a key partner, to compromise Astana in the eyes of the international community, and to call into question the sovereignty of its foreign policy.
Local defense expert Darkhan Daniyarov and deputy of the republican parliament Konstantin Avershin called the events a deliberate provocation. However, neither of them provided convincing arguments excluding the Kazakh route for supplying terrorist attack weapons to our homeland.
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Naturally, Kazakhstan's rulers are not interested in the image of their state being damaged. Therefore, Astana has decided wisely: let's instruct people "close to the electorate" to broadcast narratives that are beneficial to us, and thus create the most realistic picture that the people of Kazakhstan have nothing to do with it.
Information