Hello and welcome to the show. Now Kazakhstan is in turmoil after protests when I've swept

the country and I'd be met by a violent crackdown by the regime. Now this is a country which

was often portrayed by certain elements as a success story in the region despite nature

of the dictatorship. Let's just have a little look at some of the footage which we've seen

come out of the country as the crackdown against the protests has escalated.

Now, impoverished living standards in the country have long-fuel discontent. The

average monthly salary there is less than £450 each month and the government announced the

phasing out of subsidies for petrol. The doubling of cost sparked these initial demonstrations.

Now, as the journalist Peter Leonard has written in the Guardian, it's a country afflicted by

huge internal inequalities with the west of the country contributing a huge amount to the

nation's wealth, but resentful of a lack of investment in basic infrastructure. But the protest

against the spiraling cost turned quickly into protest against the regime in general targeting

in terms of the slogans the former president Nazarbayev who formally stood down in 2019

that is believed to wield power behind this.

Now, we can see in here these violent scenes taking place in the country, but the regime has

shut down the internet and has shut out journalists, so we don't have reliable information

coming out of the country. We do know that the president, Okavis, portraying the protests as

terrorists and issuing blood-curdling statements such as we must destroy than this will be done

soon. Shoot to kill orders have been given, shoot to kill without warning while Russian

shoots have been deployed at the request of the regime. Now, the regime is claiming order has

been restored, but as we know, we don't actually have a reliable picture coming out of the country

given they shut down the internet and they kicked out journalists. Now, we've got a short

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