Two Pieces Of Yelbasy

There is no more Kassym-Jomart, only Kemel Jomartovich remained.

There is no more Kassym-Jomart, only Kemel Jomartovich remained.

I can no longer stand it, I think I'll write about the rulers of Kazakhstan. It so happened that I crossed paths with both.

I saw Nazarbayev and communicated with him at the early CIS summits. I even worked with Tokayev when he headed the delegation of Kazakhstan at the negotiations on disarmament, and I headed the delegation of Belarus.

Nazarbayev made a repulsive impression on me from the first meeting. Among all the brand-new presidents of the CIS countries, against the background of our normal human Stanislau Shushkevich, he was noticeably distinguished by his nomenclatureness. After all, since 1969 he has been engaged in the Komsomol and communist party work. And this is already a verdict. With such a service record in the party, it is simply impossible to preserve anything human.

I remember Nazarbayev for his rudeness, arrogance, and disdain for people.

He did not particularly hide all these qualities from small people around him. He could both spit on the parquet floor and shove the napkin into which he had just blown his nose to the assistant. At the same time, Nazarbayev was able to maintain an absolutely immobile “sphinxy” expression on his face in difficult situations, especially in the presence of the press, which helped him to be known as a sort of an oriental sage. Everyone called him “bai” behind his back.

On the other hand, he was obsequious with his superiors and was radiant with servility at the first meetings of the CIS leaders when communicating with Boris Yeltsin. His entourage was afraid and did not dare to object or disobey.

I remember how we worked on the texts of the documents, and his assistants came to us with some idiotic instructions. If they were told that these instructions could not be followed, they were on the verge of fainting, anticipating imminent execution for disobedience.

I somehow could not resist (in my opinion it was at the CIS summit in Kyiv), went up to Nazarbayev and said:

- I am sorry, Nursultan Abishevich, but this document cannot be prepared in a couple of hours, as you asked. Serious negotiations are needed here.

- Who are you? - Nazarbayev asked.

- I am somebody, from the Belarusian delegation.

-Go and work, - he said. - And I’ll ask from my own people myself.

In general, Nazarbayev was perhaps the most textbook party nomenklatura man among the first draft CIS heads of state.

I met Tokayev in Geneva at the talks on nuclear disarmament. He was then the director of a department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. When he first came to the negotiations, he asked me to bring him up to date on what was happening. The negotiations were on the SORT (Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty), and the USA, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan participated in them.

I remember we were sitting in a cafe for a long time and I told him what was happening, and how the negotiations were going.

He absorbed the details well enough, reacted quickly, and was quite professional. Although already at that meeting, I realized, not knowing his “background”, that he is from the “majors” and his career will not be limited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

And so it was. Tokayev has had a fantastic career, both in Kazakhstan and in the international arena. He has even been Director General of the UN Office at Geneva and Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA). After such a career, he could do a lot for the country and its citizens.

By the way, it was he who headed the OSCE PA observer mission in the 2010 “elections”, when I was a presidential candidate. I spoke to these observers on the eve of December 19, 2010 and again spoke with Kassym-Jomart. He earlier, through the embassy, gave me his book “Overcoming”, which I read with great interest and at that meeting told him that I liked his position as a Kazakh patriot, which I saw in this book, his serious approach to the statehood of Kazakhstan, respect for the roots ...

He said that his second book was already ready. We remembered our joint work, in general we talked quite amicably. A couple of days later, when I was beaten up in the “Americana” KGB jail by the order of Lukashenka, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, on behalf of the OSCE PA delegation, recognized the results of the “elections” and congratulated the dictator on his re-election.

I found out about it in prison. I wasn’t angry with Tokayev, although it was annoying. His statement did not affect anything in that situation. It was clear that he served the same regime as Lukashenka's. These were their rules of the game. But I wanted to hope that a national leader is growing up in Kazakhstan, capable of leading Kazakhstan not along the bai, but along a reasonable path of development. The hopes were dashed.

He could still save himself and the country if he tried to solve the crisis with the help of society, and not punishers. Calling for a foreign invasion of his native land, Kazakhstan, my former colleague Kassym-Jomart Tokayev became a national traitor who will not be forgiven by his own people. By his order, the blood of his compatriots was shed. This is a terrible crime, and the curse of the people will haunt his entire family for centuries. From a politician who could help his country, he turned into just a piece of Yelbasy, cut off from the Yelbasy. I don't even know if there are any clauses in the higher spheres that allow such terrible sins to be forgiven. Apparently not.

As there is no more Kassym-Jomart.

Only Kemel Jomartovich remained.

Andrei Sannikov, Facebook