Journalist calls for restraint in response to Russian “provocateurs”

Prominent journalist Aset Matayev has called for restraint in public debates around the issues of language and inter-ethnic relations.   

Such debates have become increasingly heated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Usually, they are triggered by disparaging or threatening remarks about Kazakhstan by Russian politicians, public figures, or bloggers.  

“[Russian] propagandists have been attacking Kazakhstan and our governments in the past few years, thus shaping negative public opinion inside our country about our neighbours, and setting us against them,” Matayev, the founder of KazTAG news agency, said in a post on his Telegram channel.    

“We all know of some MPs and ‘journalists’ in some countries, who are dreaming of conquering and returning independent countries [former Soviet republics] to their fold,” Matayev said.  

He said that “foreign and domestic provocateurs” having been active in the past four-five years in Kazakhstan’s information space, using fake news and provocative statements on various social media.   

While such attacks must be “foiled”, our response must not affect inter-ethnic relations within Kazakhstan, Matayev said. 

“Sometimes simple words, or their incorrect interpretation can spark a conflict. This is exactly how Russia’s ideological war against the brotherly Ukrainian people started, later turning into a real war. We are currently witnessing two Slavic, orthodox nations locked in a destructive war,” he said. 

Various Russian politicians and bloggers have over the past several years claimed that Kazakhstan’s northern territories belong to Russia, that the Russian language is being discriminated against in Kazakhstan, and some have threatened to give the country “the same treatment” as Ukraine if it did not act like a good ally to Russia.  

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