Kazakhstan’s bloody turbulence will affect all of Central Asia

THE REVOLUTION, if that is what it was, was as brief as it was bloody, leaving at least 164 civilians, including children, and 16 police dead. Peaceful protests against a rise in fuel prices began early this month in Zhanaozen, a depressed town in Kazakhstan’s western oil region. Within days they had spread to neighbouring towns. Next, the spark raced eastward across the vast steppe to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s commercial hub, and even to the tightly policed capital, Nur-Sultan. Along the way cost-of-living grievances morphed into demands for political change. And then, suddenly, violence: a statue of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the 81-year-old “father” of the nation, after whom the capital is named, was pulled down. Almaty’s city hall (pictured) was torched. A mob stormed the airport.