Unrest and riots: Wolfratshauser worried about Kazakhstan as a second home
Created: 01/12/2022, 08:54 AM
From: Volker Ufertinger
Powder keg in Kazakhstan: A fire engine is burning here in the capital Almaty.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Reinhold Krämmel from Wolfratshausen is a former honorary consul of Kazakhstan.
He is very concerned about the current conflict.
Wolfratshausen - Kazakhstan is a country that some have heard of for the first time in the past few days.
The unrest there, including the shooting order from President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev, are currently dominating the headlines.
Someone who has been interested in the country for a long time and has traveled there frequently is the building contractor Reinhold Krämmel, Kazakh honorary consul for many years.
He made contacts on a voluntary basis and initiated projects.
"Central Asia, especially the resource-rich Kazakhstan, is extremely important for the future of the world," he says.
"Even if that is largely unknown."
Unrest and riots: Wolfratshauser worried about Kazakhstan as a second home
Little is known about the conflict itself at the moment, because the autocratic government of the gigantic country has blocked the Internet.
“I didn't get through with my messages,” says Krämmel.
"And what you learn is checked and filtered." Nobody wants to put themselves in danger in the current situation.
The latest finding of the former IHK chairman in the region: The presence of mercenaries, which the government repeatedly invokes, seems to correspond to the facts.
"According to my information there are some among them who are looking for a rampage and coup."
Reinhold Krämmel, former Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan © Merkur-Archiv
Krummel was in Kazakhstan in December - the situation was different
For decades there has been resentment about the autocratic leadership style of Nursultan Nazarbayev and apparently also that of his successor Kassym-Shomart Tokayev. "This is primarily a phenomenon in cities like the economic metropolis of Almaty, people have always been poor in the countryside," said Krämmel. The last time he was there in early December, there was no sign of an impending revolt. But then the government let the gas subsidies run out at the beginning of the year. All of a sudden, energy became 80 percent more expensive. "That was the spark on the fuse."
It is difficult to see through what exactly is going on in the background.
In geopolitical terms, Kazakhstan, as large as Western Europe, lies in the crosshairs of various interests.
In the past, at the time of the Silk Road, only the Tsarist Empire and Great Britain fought over the extremely valuable raw materials such as oil, gas, metals and uranium, which are stored there in abundance in the earth.
"Now there are a lot more people involved, Russia, China, the USA, and the Europeans also have stocks in there."
Kazakhstan's President Tokayev and Krämmel have met twice
Krämmel met the current President Tokayev twice.
“I thought he was a far-sighted diplomat.
I would not have thought it possible that he would announce an order to shoot his own population on television. ”The entrepreneur assumes that the government will restore order in the short term.
"But a lot will depend on whether the reforms that have been promised for decades will now be implemented," said Krämmel.
Then, but only then, will the country have the best opportunities.
“There are a lot of good people there, the education is there.” As a former honorary consul who loves Kazakhstan and its cosmopolitan people, he wishes the country the very best.
