Four people go on trial for declaring “independence” from Kazakhstan

Four people went on trial in the northern city of Petropavlovsk on Monday on charges of separatism, the regional court said.

The charges against Vyacheslav Zuderman, Yelena B., Madina K., and Olga B. were brought following their declaration of independence from the Republic of Kazakhstan in March this year.

The four are activists of the so-called People’s Council of the Working People of Petropavlovsk.

In a video widely shared in March, one of the female defendants read a statement saying:

“We, free men and women, working people of the city of Petropavlovsk, Northern Kazakhstan Region, in view of the falseness of the legality of the corporation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the current unfavourable living conditions for working people and the incapacity and dishonesty of its [‘the corporation’s’] agents, declare our independence and sovereignty.”

 According to the regional court, all four are charged with calls to seize power and propaganda of separatism. Zuderman is also charged with illegal possession of weapons.

The trial is closed to the media and public.

In a media interview in April, Zuderman denied that the Council had separatist plans, saying that everyone living in Kazakhstan were “in fact citizens of the Kazakh SSR [Soviet Socialist Republic]”.

He said the Council members only wanted to leave “the national corporation ‘Republic of Kazakhstan’”, which is “a trust managed by the USA, multinational corporations and the World Health Organisation”.

Zuderman is known for his anti-vaccine and anti-mask protests during the coronavirus pandemic, according to reports.

In June a court in the northwestern city of Uralsk convicted Denis Rudnyy and Kristina Kolchenko of separatism and incitement of hatred, jailing them five years and two months, and five years respectively.

The charges followed an online interview, in which they said that Uralsk was a Russian city, and that in the event of a Russian invasion of Kazakhstan, they would support the Russians.

Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has increased Kazakh-Russian tensions in Kazakhstan.

The authorities have been taking steps against expressions of both anti-Russian and anti-Kazakh sentiment.

Kazakh activists allege that the official response to perceived anti-Russian statements has been harsher, in a bid to please the Kremlin.

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