To distract Russia from invading Ukraine Did the West move the events of Kazakhstan?

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accused those participating in the protests that shake his country of being intrusive and moved by outside hands, alluding to the responsibility of the West in this, which raises questions about whether these events are an attempt to distract Moscow from what is happening in Ukraine.

The protests in Kazakhstan are entering the seventh day since their outbreak, while the insecurity and riots in the cities that know the uprising indicate that a return to calm is still far from being achieved, as the peaceful protests in two days turned into an armed clash that claimed dozens of lives and wounded more than a thousand.

In light of these developments, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described the demonstrators as "terrorists", and indicated that foreign hands were behind what was happening. This was his justification for asking for help from the "Collective Security Treaty Organization" to intervene in helping the Kazakh forces to restore order in the hot spots.

On the other hand, the acceleration of events in Kazakhstan coincides with the escalation that took place not far from the former Soviet state, as the Ukrainian-Russian conflict stands at the last crossroads, between resolving tensions and their descent into a military clash between Moscow and the West.

This coincidence prompted many observers to read the events in Kazakhstan as a Western attempt to circumvent and distract Russia in a new dispute over its borders ahead of the negotiations on the Ukrainian file.

Internationalization of events in Kazakhstan

The movement of protests towards violence was accompanied by their transition from internal to international affairs, after President Tokayev’s speech on Wednesday, in which he said that “in view of these terrorist gangs, which are mainly international and whose members have undergone serious training abroad, our country is subjected to aggression, I asked the CSTO countries to help Kazakhstan overcome this terrorist threat.

In turn, the organization announced Thursday the dispatch of peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan, stressing that units of the paratroopers in the Russian forces have already begun to carry out their tasks there, which will be "to protect important government and military installations, and help the Kazakh security forces achieve stability and normalize the situation there." Statement of the General Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

More like Ukraine?

Since its outbreak, observers have been observing similarities between the Kazakhstan protests and the Ukrainian Maidan uprising in 2014, but surprisingly, the first descended into violence much faster than the second, and the Russians entered the line faster.

Likewise, the role of the West in what is happening, for Tokayev's talk about "terrorist aggression" and his resort to Russia to seek help in confronting it, implies an indication of a Western role within the escalating conflict in the country.

Similarities also raise fears that what happened previously in the Crimea will be repeated, with Russia annexing the regions of northern Kazakhstan with a Russian majority in its territory. These fears are rooted in the declaration last year by a number of Russian politicians of the need to “return” these lands to the influence of the Federal Republic, led by Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Russian deputy from the ruling party, who claimed that “Kazakhstan did not exist as a state, and its lands were a great gift from Russia and the Soviet Union.

On the other hand, "With journalists scrambling to monitor the commonalities between the two events, and the similarity between what some hot heads in Russian policy have stated regarding the Kazakh regions and the pretexts used by Moscow to occupy the Crimea, I do not see until this moment a similarity between what is happening in Kazakhstan and what happened in Ukraine in 2014," says Muhammad Farajallah, political analyst and editor-in-chief of the "Ukraine in Arabic" agency, in an interview with TRT Arabic.

Faraj Allah adds that "it is true that in the region there is a brake on a number of remnants of the Soviet era, and that the two issues are linked in terms of timing because Russia and the West are approaching talks regarding Ukraine, but between them there is a difference in terms of the nature of the two peoples, there is a Muslim people and here is a Christian people The Kazakhs have an Eastern culture and a tribal character, while the Ukrainians have a Western culture.

Trying a western distraction?

Geneva is preparing on January 10 to host talks between Russia and the West, followed by a meeting on January 12 between Russia and NATO, and another 13 meeting with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Talks entered by the two parties armed with strategic gains on the ground that would strengthen their position in negotiations.

From the Russian side, the presence of its army on the border with Ukraine and the threat to plunge the region into a wider war is the major pressure card with which it enters the negotiations. However, its current intervention in Kazakhstan weakens this card, prompting many to question whether the events in Kazakhstan are an attempt to distract the West from the side. Russia ahead of the Geneva talks.

Farajallah answers, explaining to TRT Arabic, that "it is difficult to conclude that there is a Western role in what is happening now in Kazakhstan, and it is too early to draw such conclusions because these revolutions are always tied up against an unknown," adding that "this does not negate casting events in the interest of the western side." ahead of the upcoming talks, and that it is an attempt to distract Russia and implicate it more and more in allied files.”

An interest explained by the speaker that “Russia is relying on strengthening its position on the threat to Ukraine, as it is besieging it on three fronts.” On the other hand, “the West cannot send its forces on the ground, and therefore it is waiting and trying to weaken Russia politically.” Here the explosion of protests in Kazakhstan becomes “another burden” It is added to Russia's shoulders and is considered a blow to Moscow in depth, because Kazakhstan is one of the most important countries on which it was based in the region."

Also, the activation of the Kazakh regime's "collective defense treaty" and the deployment of Russian forces there, is "the last thing Putin would have wished for, because he was putting all his weight and focus on putting pressure on the West through the Ukrainian card," which is considered, according to Farajallah, "a gain for the West, It will reduce Russia's chances of negotiations," and "will ease pressure on Ukraine. Let's deploy its forces in Kazakhstan. Russia was forced to withdraw part of its soldiers from the Crimea." In addition, "this burdens Russia and surrounds it with crises from all sides."

The second is the production of digital currencies What does Kazakhstan have to do with the collapse of Bitcoin prices?

The bitcoin mining industry in Kazakhstan, the world's second largest producer after the United States, has been hit by a severe disruption for a second day due to internet outages across the country amid widespread protests, which sent prices crashing by more than 12%.

Kazakhstan entered its new year on the impact of popular anti-government demonstrations, first sparked by the government's hike in LNG prices, that began in the west of the country over the weekend and spread rapidly through cities across the country.

In the wake of the popular protests that are developing towards violence and killing, the internet was cut across the country last Wednesday. Although the intent seemed to be to disrupt the protesters’ communications, the effects of the blackout spread more and began to affect the prices of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which took a major hit and lost more than 12% of its value.

According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Kazakhstan last year became the world's second largest center for bitcoin mining after the United States, after the main hub in China imposed restrictions on crypto-mining activity.

2nd in the world

Last August, Kazakhstan had 18% of the global "hash rate" (nearly one-fifth of global production), a term used in cryptography to describe the amount of computing power used by computers connected to the Bitcoin network, after it was in April 2021, Before China's latest crackdown on Bitcoin mining, only about 8%.

Kazakhstan witnessed a large influx of bitcoin mining companies after its neighbor China banned bitcoin mining last year, making it second in the world after the United States in mining and producing the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

According to the Financial Times, some 90,000 mining companies have moved to Kazakhstan after being forced out of China, by 2021.

Because of its pivotal role in the global Bitcoin mining network, the nationwide internet outage has led to a sharp setback in the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. “It seems that the internet is down across Kazakhstan, so no miner can connect to the mining pools,” Alan Dordjiyev, head of the Kazakh National Association of Blockchain and Data Center Industry, told CoinDesk on Thursday.

Impact of events on bitcoin prices

Although Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies fell sharply on Wednesday amid concerns that the US Federal Reserve may raise interest rates sooner than expected, recent events have had a bigger impact on cryptocurrency prices, specifically Bitcoin.

Within hours of a nationwide internet outage and the inability of bitcoin miners in Kazakhstan to access the bitcoin network, bitcoin's computational power sank, leading as of Thursday to a 12% drop in the bitcoin network's hash rate.

The fact that a lower hash rate caused by some miners withdrawing from the network theoretically makes it easier for the remaining miners to produce new currency, but that does not necessarily mean that Bitcoin prices will rise. Despite a 14% drop in the hash rate from Tuesday to Thursday, according to data from miner BTC.com, the cryptocurrency fell to nearly $41,000 on Friday morning, testing its lowest levels in several months, which confirmed the amount of weight. Which Kazakhstan holds in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

It is worth noting that the price of Bitcoin has ranged between $51,600 and $45,800 in the past two weeks.

Cryptocurrency mining

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are created or "mined" with high-powered computers, usually located in data centers in different parts of the world, competing to solve complex mathematical puzzles in an energy-intensive process.

The more miners are on the network, the more computer power is required to mine new bitcoins, and the hash rate drops if miners withdraw from the network, theoretically making it easier for the remaining miners to produce new coins.

In Kazakhstan, mining mines are run mostly from old coal plants that, along with coal mines and entire cities built around them, are a nuisance to authorities in their quest to decarbonize the economy, which said last year it planned to crack down on unregistered "gray" miners who You estimate that they may use twice as much energy as "whites" or officially registered.

For its part, the Kazakh Energy Ministry indicated last year that "gray" mining could consume up to 1.2 gigawatts of energy, which with 600 megawatts of white miners amounting to about 8% of the total generation capacity in Kazakhstan.

France expects to start producing electricity from new nuclear plants by 2035

The French Minister of State for the Environment has suggested that electricity production will start by 2035-2037 from new nuclear power plants planned as part of an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

President Emmanuel Macron announced in November a program to increase the number of such stations, saying they were important for Europe in its quest to curb global warming, and for France to reduce its dependence on imported oil and natural gas.

Minister of State for the Environment Beranger Aba revealed to the senators that the new reactors will be the next generation of European reactors developed by the state-owned company EDF.

“Our schedule includes submitting applications around 2023, with operations beginning in 2035-2037,” Aba said, adding that the exact number of new reactors would be announced “soon.”

For its part, EDF offered to build six reactors for about 50 billion euros ($57 billion).

France produces the bulk of its electricity (70 percent) from 56 nuclear reactors distributed over 18 stations that are currently operating.

Many reactors are approaching their maximum expected life of 40 years.

On the other hand, Électricité de France (Electricité de France) plans to decommission the last unit at its Hunterston B nuclear power plant in Scotland (northern UK) following ongoing safety issues at the plant, which was built 46 years ago.

At noon on Friday, station workers stood outside its perimeter, watching the latest steam from the turbines. And while the decision to close was made in 2020, implementing it yesterday comes at a difficult time, for the market, with Europe facing an energy crisis and colder winter months yet to come.

Britain can usually rely on imports of electricity from France, but prolonged blackouts at nuclear plants there are limiting supplies.

Germany shut down half of its nuclear plants last month, before fully phasing out by the end of this year.

Combined with the gas crisis, this is driving energy prices to record levels.

Low-carbon energy from Britain's outdated nuclear plants is seen as the basis for achieving the net-zero emissions target by 2050.

The new Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, operated by France's EDF, is due to start operating. Electricity generation, in 2026 and waiting to hear the government's opinion on financing its "Sizewell C" project.

After the NATO meeting, an American threat to Russia and a welcome to the alliance for a diplomatic solution

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken affirmed the alliance's readiness to respond forcefully to any Russian aggression against Ukraine, and at the same time welcomed a diplomatic solution to the crisis of Russia's military build-up on the Ukrainian border.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said after a NATO meeting on Friday that a diplomatic solution to the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border is still possible and remains the preferred option, but the alliance is ready to respond forcefully to any Russian aggression.

In statements to reporters, Blinken accused Moscow of "disrupting" by spreading misinformation about Ukraine and claiming that the former Soviet republic is a threat to Russia and seeks to ignite a conflict.

In the same context, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia's readiness to take the diplomatic path next week is positive, but the alliance cannot accept having "second-class" allies that it cannot defend.

"We are ready to engage in arms control efforts with Russia, whether conventional or nuclear, but it must be with the commitment of both parties," Stoltenberg said after the meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member states.

"This is something different (from) unilateral restrictions... We cannot end up in a situation where we find that we have second-class NATO members and the alliance is not allowed to protect them," he added.

Russia said in December it wanted legally binding guarantees that NATO would abandon any military activity in eastern Europe and Ukraine.