Kazakh President Tokayev Sacks Defense Minister Bektanov For Being Incompetent To Handle Protests

President Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/Administration of the President of Russia)

JAKARTA - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sacked his defense minister on Wednesday, accusing him of failing to show leadership and initiative, as the country is rocked by the worst unrest in 30 years of independence.

The ouster of Defense Minister Murat Bektanov marks the final stage of President Tokayev's purge of security institutions as he consolidates power after violent protests rocked the splintered Soviet republic in the first week of January.

"During the events of January the armed forces, due to the fact that their leadership was so uncertain and lacked initiative, were unable to fulfill the tasks assigned to them," Tokayev said in a damning rebuke, accusing the minister of failing to demonstrate 'quality of governance'.

President Tokayev was forced to call on troops from the Russia-led alliance of ex-Soviet states, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), to quell the unrest, which is tarnishing the image of stability and control that Kazakhstan has used to attract hundreds of billions of dollars of Western investment in its oil and mining industries. The prosecutor's office said at least 225 people were killed in the riots.

President Tokayev replaced Bektanov with Ruslan Zhaksylykov, previously deputy interior minister and head of the national guard. He said the armed forces needed thorough modernization and better military intelligence "to provide the country's leadership with timely and reliable information on external and internal threats".

Tokayev became president in 2019, with his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev continuing to hold significant power as head of the influential Security Council.

During the riots, he stripped Nazarbayev of the post and fired his nephew as deputy head of intelligence. Nazarbayev's three sons-in-law have resigned from senior positions in state companies and business lobby groups.

Nevertheless, Nazarbayev, 81, appeared on television on Tuesday to deny any rifts in the ruling elite, saying he had retired from public life and Tokayev was fully in charge of the country.