Not surprising that this is coming shortly after Kazakhstan's internet access was disrupted [1]. It's a lot easier to murder your citizens if they can't expose such atrocities to the rest of the world.<p>[1]: <a href="https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-kazakhstan-amid-energy-price-protests-oy9YQgy3" rel="nofollow">https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-kazakhst...</a>
Putin and Pals, and their apologists, make it sound like people living under these regimes enjoy human rights, fair elections, a free press, no corruption, and a high standard of living, and have no reason at all to revolt if not for “Western meddling”. It makes sense to say that if you’re a mass-murderer like Putin who never believed in human dignity, but the rhetoric of tankies and privileged apologists who live in the West, and have no idea what it’s like to live in a dictatorship, is mind-numbingly hypocritical. If the West is so bad and Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Kazakhstan, etc. are so incredibly better, why do they still live in the West?
That's not good. But sorry, I don't buy the "upstanding citizens revolt because gas prices went up" narrative that the major news networks are proposing. The real question is; what foreign powers are instigating riots in Kazakhstan, and why. That many people have been discontent with an autocratic regime is no longer enough for me to applaud the possible creation of yet another failed state.
> shoot-to-kill order to quell protests<p>What a typical headline manipulation. And the article barely mentions all the armed banditry, nice. Way to paint a dramatic picture, Reuters.