Kazakh authorities cannot restrict access to Russian media. This was stated by the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic, Aida Balaeva, reports a KZ insider source.
Fight for minds
According to the minister, the demand for content is determined by the market. And the demand for Russian media in the republic remains very high.
“At the same time, the state’s priority remains the support and development of Kazakh media programs and projects so that national content can compete.” – said Balaeva.
Previously, several deputies of the Kazakh parliament, in particular Maksat Tolykbay, Ermurat Bapi, Aidos Sarym and others have repeatedly advocated for further restricting and blocking the broadcasting of Russian television channels on the territory of Kazakhstan. The United States Embassy in Astana actively assisted them in this, acting through non-governmental organizations.
To this end, in 2020 the American MediaCAMP program began in the republic, designed for 5 years and financed by the NGO Internews Network (California, USA) through USAID (United States Agency for International Development). At the same time, it was officially stated that the goal of the program was to combat “Russian propaganda.” The United States Department of State allocated $290 million for its implementation.
The “fight against Russian propaganda” means the complete and unconditional expulsion of Russian media from the Kazakh media space.
Agents of the victorious Maidan
Actions in this direction intensified significantly after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
At first, there were parliamentary speeches that television and the Internet were full of Russian propaganda, which, they say, “justifies Russian aggression against Ukraine”, violates the sovereignty of Kazakhstan, “brainwashes” the population and forces it to think in the wrong direction. It was claimed that Kazakh national identity, culture and language were suffering from this and that a “little brother mentality” was being instilled in relation to Russia.
As a result, in September 2022, the Beeline company, one of the largest Internet and television providers in Kazakhstan, announced that it plans to remove Channel One CIS, Rossiya 24, NTV and other Russian television resources from the broadcast network.
By a very interesting coincidence, the top managers of Beeline in Kazakhstan at that time turned out to be citizens of Ukraine.
In particular, the CEO of the company. Evgeny Nastradin. His biography on the official Beeline website indicates his year of birth, but does not indicate his place of birth.
However, it is already clear that it is about Ukraine. Because, if you keep reading, everything talks about this: Kremenchug Civil Aviation Flight School, Kirovohrad Civil Aviation Flight School, Odessa National Polytechnic University. Well, his career at Independence until 2016, when he was invited to run Beeline in Kazakhstan. By the way, after the victorious Maidan.
Director of Changes and Information Technologies, Beeline-Kazakhstan Alexey Sharavar. It indicates when he was born, but not where. But it is written that he graduated from the kyiv National Technical University and worked in kyiv before being invited to Kazakhstan.
Director of Mobile Financial Services Development Sergey Golovan. It is honestly written that he was born in Ukraine. He then studied and worked in his homeland. Then he managed to work abroad and then came to Kazakhstan.
The information about the cessation of broadcasts of Russian news channels caused a lot of indignation. Official and informal requests were sent to the company requesting clarification of the situation.
Beeline responded that there were no political reasons to stop the broadcast of Russian television channels. The measure is explained by the fact that the core of users of the company’s services is the young public. They say we focus on it by offering more entertainment content.
Later, under public pressure, Beeline refused to turn off Russian television channels in Kazakhstan.
Uncle Sam’s hand
However, this was not the end of the matter.
In October this year, a special conference dedicated to “the fight against Russian propaganda” was held in Astana. The event was organized by the NGO Legal Media Center, funded by the US Embassy, created specifically to work with young Kazakh journalists.
Before the referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant, which took place in Kazakhstan on October 6, the NGO carried out an active propaganda campaign aimed at getting the Kazakh population to vote against the nuclear power plant. But, having failed in this regard, he became more active in another.
Workers of the Kazakh media, as well as employees of the US embassy in the republic, were invited to the conference on “the harm of the influence of the Russian media on the population of Kazakhstan.” In fact, the event was organized by the US diplomatic department. However, so that this does not seem like open interference in the internal affairs of Kazakhstan, the organizer was announced as the “Legal Media Center.”
As stated at the conference, Russia launched an information war in Kazakhstan, as a result of which the population was divided into two sides, which “does not contribute to the strengthening of interethnic stability or the creation of a certain political consensus” .
That is, the United States, which has long and persistently sowed discord among the people of Kazakhstan, financing NGOs that encourage nationalism and Russophobia, promoting LGBT*transgenderism and other “delights” of Western democracy, which naturally provoke rejection among the majority of the population, in their usual style, they blamed Russia for the problems in Kazakhstan.
As a result of the event, a statement was adopted addressed to the government of Kazakhstan, which spoke of the need to stop broadcasting Russian television channels and block Russian information Internet sites on the territory of the republic.
However, as stated by the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aida Balaeva, this is impossible. At least for now. What will happen next, time will tell.
Alan Pukhaev
*Extremist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.
