From the Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee to the Secretary of the CSTO: the journey of Imangali Tasmagambetov.

“RITUAL-NOMINAL FIGURE”

Russia was compelled to conduct tests of the “Oreshnik” system, stated Imangali Tasmagambetov at the end of November, explaining the ballistic missile strike on Ukraine as the first combat use of this type of weapon, which, according to Moscow, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

A week later, during a press conference in the Russian capital, Tasmagambetov said that there are no analogues to “Oreshnik” and reminded that Russia has recently updated its nuclear doctrine and expanded the grounds for the use of weapons of mass destruction. He also discussed the activation of NATO.

“If we hypothetically consider the possibility of an invasion of the western borders of Belarus or Russia, it would be absolute recklessness on the part of NATO,” Tasmagambetov said on December 4.

The Secretary General of the CSTO also commented on the war in Ukraine, where Russian troops invaded in February 2022, condemning the supply of weapons to the defending Kyiv.

“The trend towards further escalation of the situation in Ukraine continues. Massive supplies of increasingly lethal types of weapons to the conflict zone are virtually nullifying the prospects for resolving the standoff through negotiations,” Tasmagambetov stated.

During the press conference in Moscow, he also used the phrase “unfriendly countries” (a list of such states was compiled by the Russian government, including around 50 countries).

“Information attacks from unfriendly countries undoubtedly affect security as a whole. It is enough to mention that USAID, for example, allocates about 300 million euros for countries of the CIS to conduct an information agenda — although this is framed as issues related to freedom of speech, human rights, and so on — but still, under this guise, a significant amount of funding is directed towards our countries,” he noted.

In the leadership of Kazakhstan, one of the CSTO members (the organization also includes Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia; Armenia suspended its membership this year), such formulations are usually not used. Astana officially adheres to a multi-vector foreign policy and tries to maneuver, although it has become increasingly difficult to balance recently. The country has proclaimed allied relations with Russia but also interacts with the West. American and European organizations operate in Kazakhstan, including the aforementioned USAID, a U.S. government agency that collaborates with the Kazakh government to provide foreign aid.

Western countries have invested billions of dollars in the economy of the Central Asian country. Hydrocarbon deposits in Kazakhstan are developed with the participation of oil giants from the U.S.

— Russia plays the first fiddle in the CSTO. It is clear that the position of the CSTO Secretary General has almost always coincided with the position of the Kremlin. The Secretary General is more of a ritual-nominal figure. No Secretary General has ever voiced anything contrary to Russia's position. Therefore, [in Tasmagambetov's statements] there is nothing surprising,” says Kazakh political scientist Dosym Satpaev, director of the “Risk Assessment Group.” “If he had said something different, it would have instantly led to Russia demanding his removal. Because the position of Moscow has a significant influence on the choice of the CSTO Secretary General.

The Kremlin narratives in Tasmagambetov's mouth contrast with his image as a champion of national interests, which has been built in Kazakhstan for many years.

In 2000, an expedition organized by him brought a copy of the Kül-Tegin stele, a monument of Turkic writing from the 8th century, from Mongolia. In an interview with a Kazakh-language newspaper 20 years later, Tasmagambetov said that the delivery of the stone copy “silenced those who said that Kazakhs have no roots, that they had no state of their own.”

He did not name those who deny Kazakh history. Claims that Kazakhs never had statehood have been voiced by many Russian propagandists. Vladimir Putin has made similar statements: the Russian president made such a statement after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Soon, the Kazakh authorities declared 2015 as the year of the 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate, celebrating the anniversary with cultural events.

Tasmagambetov initiated the state-level burial of the remains of Keiki-batyr (Nurmagambet Kokeimbaiuly). The skull of one of the leaders of the 1916 uprising against Tsarist Russia had been kept for decades in the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg. In 2016, it was returned to Kazakhstan, and a year later, the remains were laid to rest in the homeland of the batyr in the Kostanay region.

As Deputy Prime Minister, Tasmagambetov proposed making all kindergartens in the country Kazakh.

In 2017, while serving as Deputy Prime Minister, Tasmagambetov oversaw preparations for the 100th anniversary of the “Alash” movement, created by Kazakh intelligentsia, which proclaimed the national autonomy of Alashorda. The government of the autonomy existed for less than a thousand days. The leaders of “Alash” were killed during the Stalinist repressions, and the legacy of the enlighteners, writers, and poets who were at the origins of the movement was banned for many years.

Kazakh political scientist Dimash Alzhanov agrees that Tasmagambetov is compelled to reproduce Moscow's position due to his current role as CSTO Secretary General.

— Given Russia's complete dominance in this organization. But he is currently doing work that will not reflect well on his image in Kazakh society,” Alzhanov believes.

“PRODUCT OF NAZARBAYEV”

At 37, he was an assistant to the president, at 39 he took the position of Deputy Prime Minister, and at 45 he headed the government, becoming one of the youngest chairmen of the Kazakh Cabinet.

In the 2000s, the career of the former chairman of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Kazakhstan, a Soviet youth organization, rapidly ascended. There were rumors in the country that the charismatic Imangali Tasmagambetov, who was fluent in the Kazakh language (at that time, many representatives of the establishment educated in the USSR were Russian-speaking), could become the next president.

However, challenging Nursultan Nazarbayev, a member of the Soviet Politburo who had been at the helm of Kazakhstan since before the collapse of the USSR, was dangerous: Akzhan Kazhegeldin, another energetic former prime minister who declared presidential ambitions, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on corruption charges in absentia (he settled in the UK, where he received political asylum). Tasmagambetov has repeatedly publicly emphasized his loyalty to Nazarbayev.

“I would never have become today’s Tasmagambetov without the president. Even the fact that I can express my own opinions today, sometimes contrary to the government — this is the result of the educational effect instilled in me by the president. I have worked closely with him and learned from him to assess situations independently,” Tasmagambetov said in 2000 in an interview with the newspaper "Respublika." — Therefore, I am a product of Nazarbayev.

Tasmagambetov's official biography includes leadership of the presidential administration, work as akim in his native oil-producing Atyrau region, and in the capital and largest city of the country, Almaty.

Tasmagambetov's tenure as akim solidified his image as a “strong manager.” In Almaty, roads and transport interchanges were actively built during his time, and the era of high oil prices pushed up real estate prices, giving momentum to housing construction. Tasmagambetov took on the city outskirts, launching a campaign against “land grabbers.” People who built houses on undeveloped plots, mostly from the declining rural areas, he referred to as “social outsiders.”

In the summer of 2006, bulldozers demolished buildings in the Baqai microdistrict, leaving dozens of families homeless. In the Shanyrak microdistrict, a similar scenario ended in tragedy: attempts to demolish houses deemed illegal met with desperate resistance from residents. A young police officer was killed after being taken hostage by the Shanyrak residents. He was doused with gasoline and set on fire.

But these events did not affect Tasmagambetov's career. Two years later, he became akim