>President Tokayev says that he is the chairman of security council from now, instead of Nazarbayev
This is a huge deal. Conventional wisdom was that Nazarbayev, an unchallenged strongman for almost 30 years, only gave up the day-to-day duties of running the country to a younger sycophant but retained the ability to make "higher-order" decisions via his chairmanship of the security council - one of the models which Putin might follow as well, since he cannot ever simply retire.
This either means Nazarbayev doesn't want to be associated with the fall of Tokayev and will attempt to feign conflict with him to retain power in case shit goes south, or perhaps Tokayev just used the situation to perform a "forced retirement" coup against Nazarbayev.
It's also unclear (judging from my twitter feed and a few liveblogs I follow) where Nazarbayev is currently located (and what he thinks about this mess).
I wonder if finally someone (Russian/China?) convinces him to go down and retire? After all he has been there for three decades, and maybe the other countries are not exactly happy about his way.
Nazarbayev is 81 years old. It doesn't seem likely he'll emerge as the new ruler, even with Russian backing. ...but he might lend legitimacy to any new leader the Russians try to muscle in.
This is a huge deal. Conventional wisdom was that Nazarbayev, an unchallenged strongman for almost 30 years, only gave up the day-to-day duties of running the country to a younger sycophant but retained the ability to make "higher-order" decisions via his chairmanship of the security council - one of the models which Putin might follow as well, since he cannot ever simply retire.
This either means Nazarbayev doesn't want to be associated with the fall of Tokayev and will attempt to feign conflict with him to retain power in case shit goes south, or perhaps Tokayev just used the situation to perform a "forced retirement" coup against Nazarbayev.
reply