{"id":40451,"date":"2022-01-08T19:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2022\/jan\/08\/inequality-protest-authoritarian-kazakh-government"},"modified":"2022-01-08T19:00:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-08T10:00:49","slug":"inequality-is-driving-protest-against-kazakhstans-authoritarian-government-peter-leonard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=40451","title":{"rendered":"Inequality is driving protest against Kazakhstan\u2019s authoritarian government | Peter Leonard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The illusion of a successful, free-market economy is shattered \u2013 and now Tokayev\u2019s violent crackdown bodes ill for dissenters<\/p>\n<p>Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, is the kind of mirage that oil-rich nations so often produce. It has all the trappings of comfort and consumer excess: swanky shopping malls, luxury car dealerships, high-end hotels.<\/p>\n<p>This is the image of prosperity that the country\u2019s rulers enjoy projecting to the world. For decades, Kazakhs have been encouraged to take out expensive loans to experience their share in the dream: to buy flats, cars and even holidays they can barely afford.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Leonard is Central Asia editor at the news and analysis website Eurasianet<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2022\/jan\/08\/inequality-protest-authoritarian-kazakh-government\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The illusion of a successful, free-market economy is shattered \u2013 and now Tokayev\u2019s violent crackdown bodes ill for dissentersAlmaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, is the kind of mirage that oil-rich nations so often produce. It has all the trap&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2783,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1203,262,80,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inequality","category-kazakhstan","category-protest","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40452,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40451\/revisions\/40452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}