Clearly, there is an imbalance and a problem with the fair distribution of national income. International experts (KPMG, 2019) confirm that half of Kazakhstan's wealth is in the hands of only 162 people,” Tokayev said at a meeting with representatives of big business.

“At the same time, the monthly income of half of the population does not exceed 50 thousand tenges. That means just over.1,300 a year. It is impossible to live with such money. I have already said that such classification and inequality are dangerous. It is necessary to change the situation immediately,” Tokayev added.  

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on the business community to learn from this and work together to form a new economic policy that should become the basis of a new Kazakhstan.

Protests broke out in Kazakhstan on January 2 after a sudden sharp increase in gas prices in which according to the Kazakh government was due to high demand and price-fixing.

The protests began in the oil town of Zhanaozen but have quickly spread to other cities in the country, including the largest city, Almaty.

In response, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in the Mangystau Region and Almaty, effective from 5 January 2022. The Mamin Cabinet resigned the same day. The state of emergency was shortly extended to the whole country.

In response to Tokayev's request, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – a military alliance of Russia and its allied states that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan itself – agreed to deploy troops in Kazakhstan. The aim was declared to be peacekeeping. The local police reported that “dozens of attackers were liquidated”, while former President Nazarbayev was removed as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan.

As a concession, President Tokayev said that the vehicle fuel price caps of 50 tenges per liter had been restored for 6 months. On January 7, he said in a statement that “constitutional order has largely been restored in all regions of the country.” (ILKHA)