Kazakh MP says some Russian politicians need “a therapist’s couch”

A Kazakh MP has suggested that Russian politicians who make “unfriendly” remarks about Kazakhstan need “a therapist’s couch”.

Marat Bashimov was reacting to Russian MP Yevgeniy Fyodorov’s remarks questioning the legality of Kazakhstan’s independence.

It was the latest in a series of ‘anti-Kazakh’ statements by various Russian politicians in recent years which included territorial claims against Kazakhstan and allegations of discrimination against the Russian language in the country.  

In a media interview this week, Fyodorov claimed that Kazakhstan’s exit from the Soviet Union “was not in line with legal procedures”.

“This gives grounds to see Kazakhstan as, let us say, not a fully legal [sovereign] territory, purely from the legal point of view,” Fyodorov said.  

Fyodorov’s remarks were part of his commentary on the conviction of four Kazakh citizens for separatism this week over their declaration of independence from Kazakhstan. They alleged that the latter’s sovereignty was “false”. The four residents of Petropavlovsk — the leader and activists of a so-called People’s Council — were jailed for between seven and nine years.

Fyodorov said the People’s Council’s actions were “extremism, not separatism”.

Kazakh MP Bashimov said in a statement in parliament that the People’s Council members “deserved” the separatism conviction.

He said Fyodorov “has the intellect of a 13-year-old boy” and is known for his “false, provocative remarks about our sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Bashimov accused Fyodorov of “blatant manipulation of the facts” about the way the Soviet Union had collapsed.

He urged “Russian counterparts to think before talking about very sensitive political subjects”.

“Your memories of our common Soviet past have long belonged in the history books alone.”

“Our country has fully demarcated its borders with all its neighbours. We don’t have inferiority complexes about our Soviet past, we’ve gained independence and international recognition,” Bashimov added.

“Fyodorov and those like him should be solving their psychological traumas not in the media or in parliament, but on a therapist’s couch,” he said.

Fyodorov also said in the interview that Kazakhstan “has the right to be independent”, but Russia should impose “certain geopolitical restrictions” on it.

“What restrictions? For example, pledges not to join NATO, and not to be involved in any anti-Russian military build-up – and we have to use the corresponding international mechanisms in order to ensure that.”

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