20.10.2021, 18:31 187820

The truth about Zhanbolat Mamay: who is behind the oppositionist?

Demands for a credit amnesty have been heard in Kazakhstan for a long time. Only the laziest did not try to earn political points on this topic.

The former people's communists (now the NPK), the fugitive oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, the head of the failed El Tiregi party Nurzhan Altayev and many others suggested writing off the debts. Now this hackneyed topic is exploited by Zhanbolat Mamay, the leader of the so-called unregistered Democratic Party, which is essentially a group of people that does not have a clear political agenda and conducts its activities from time to time.

About a week ago, his supporters held a protest near the National Bank, demanding a credit amnesty.

However, they did not find support among the Kazakhs. In social networks, a wave of indignation poured out on the protesters.

- You had to think before taking loans, - commentators noted.

Everyone is well aware that Mamay is against the foundations of a market economy. In any developed country, he would be laughed at, because it is a completely wild idea that undermines the values of the civilized world. You do not need to be an economist or a financier to understand that someone will have to pay for loans that are hanging as a dead weight. Problem borrowers can be saved by other taxpayers. The credit amnesty can be hung on banks, but it will be the last nail in the coffin of the domestic financial system.

Zhanbolat Mamay positions himself as the only real oppositionist in the country. However, in fact, he is clearly a dependent figure, accustomed to serving someone else's interests. This is eloquently evidenced by his variegated biography.

His political "career" began in 2007. At that time Mamay was the head of the club "Spirit and language". The organization was characterized as ultra-radical. Its founder is a famous poet and writer, ex-deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Shakhanov.

Mamay thanks to Shakhanov developed as a journalist and public activist. Shakhanov sought the release of Mamay when he messed the things up in Zhanaozen. Until recently, Mamay called Shakhanov his mentor and teacher. However, in 2019, Zhanbolat suddenly forgot about it and called Shakhanov "a sycophant of the power". Though there was no reason for that, it just seemed to Mamay that Shakhanov had caved in under the new president.

The reason of betraying his supporter is that Mamay realized that Shakhanov was losing ground due to his already advanced age. Moreover, having substituted his mentor, the activist killed two birds with one stone. First, he presented himself as an oppositionist fighting for democratic principles. And, secondly, the authorities have used him to eliminate opponents.

However, in 2010, Mamay was suspected of a double game. He twice failed to appear at the protests announced by himself.

In 2010, we gathered a youth meeting. I supported Mamay, flew with him to Astana to meet with the Minister of Education. We had a very tough conversation and as a result, Mamay retreated, he simply chickened out. He explained his decision as: "Well, if we proceed, we will be arrested. And what is the ultimate goal?". Then he began to accuse Shakhanov that he would not come to the square, even if we did" wrote his former colleague Ulan Shamshet, member of the "Antiheptyl" group, which protested against the launch of heptyl-fueled missiles from the territory of Kazakhstan.

In 2012, after the events in Zhanaozen, Zhanbolat Mamay and a known director and public figure Bolat Atabaev, were prosecuted under the articles "Call to overthrow the constitutional order" and "Incitement of social discord." But in July, all charges against Mamay were dropped in connection with active repentance. He was transferred from the accused to the witness.

The secret of the activist's exceptional luck is simple: he carries out the orders of those who in power. He joins the ranks of the opposition, Mamay obtains incriminating information, collects documents that could be used against dissidents.

As a result, Mamay testified against ex-chairman of the coordinating council of the People's Party "Alga!" Vladimir Kozlov, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.

In 2017, Mamay again came to the attention of the security forces. This time it was about the legalization of funds obtained by criminal means. The activist received 110 thousand dollars from the fugitive swindler Mukhtar Ablyazov, convicted in absentia in Kazakhstan for organizing the murder of the head of BTA Bank Yerzhan Tatishev, as well as for stealing money from this bank. The money was intended to support the Tribuna newspaper, of which Mamay was the editor-in-chief at that time. With these funds, he bought a luxurious cottage and made expensive renovations in it. But the journalists of the Tribuna did not see a penny. Moreover, the future leader of the Democratic Party never paid their salaries.

Meanwhile, the second attempt to send Mamay to jail by the security forces also succeeded only partially. Ex-Deputy Prime Minister, former Secretary of the Security Council Tulegen Zhukeyev, who worked for a long time in government agencies, stood up for him. The Secretary of the Security Council is an official appointed and dismissed by the President in agreement with the President of the Security Council, to whom he is directly subordinate and accountable. True, the punishment for Mamay was nevertheless appointed. Considering that by that time all the main players from the opposition had already been eliminated, the authorities had to give him 2.5 years of restriction of freedom. Mamay used this fact to strengthen his position, creating a halo of victim around him.

At the same time, he sold his benefactor, Mukhtar Ablyazov, with giblets, testifying against him. After that, they parted ways. The ex-banker even dedicated one of the live broadcasts to Mamay, telling about his connections with the authorities.

We recently demanded to stop the repression of Muslims in China: Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Dungans. We said that China is pursuing a policy of assimilation, does not give people the opportunity to believe in their religion, to learn their ethnic language. And now Mamay suggests Singaporean model, which abandons the creation of enclaves. Says that they don't need any languages, ethnic language is a prerogative for elective choice" Mukhtar Ablyazov stated on one of the broadcasts about "democracy from Mamay", who decided to coerce the Kazakh Dungans.

By the way, the well-known social activist Serikzhan Bilyash, who advocates for the rights of Xinjiang Muslims, also has a low opinion of Mamay.

He is a homebrew government clown created to show the West that we have a democracy. He and people like him, who carry out other people's orders and tasks, do nothing except fooling the people", he said in an interview with another oppositionist Yerzhan Turgumbay.

Shortly Mamay distinguished himself again. The Tribuna newspaper and its observer Denis Krivosheev lost the court at the suit of a businessman from Karagandy. By a court decision, they had to pay him 5 million tenge. According to Krivosheev, he collected his part of the debt. But Inga Imanbai begged for this money for the next issue of the newspaper, promising to return everything as soon as sales went. As a result, Krivosheev had to collect the entire amount again. Nobody returned the debt to the journalist. A big lover of easy money Mamay, for whom shaking the colleagues down for money is a common thing, did not deign to return the debt to the journalist.

After 2 years, Mamay, despite the injunction to work as a journalist, released the documentary film "Zulmat", which was shown in one of the most prestigious cinemas in Almaty. The film launch was covered by all leading state media. It was obvious that the Kazakh authorities were involved in the creation and distribution of the film.

Later, during the presidential elections of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Zhanbolat Mamay, instead of supporting his former opposition comrade self-nominated Amirzhan Kosanov, began to urge people to boycott the elections and come out to the squares, again to please the authorities.

Zhukeyev and Mamay were silent during the elections and are now making their careers on the anti-Kosanov theme. Mr. Zhukeyev, where were you with your protege when I took part in the defining elections? These oppositionists, who took my votes, denigrating me! It seems that they all worked against me into the hands of the authorities. Maybe they were paid, I don't know" wrote afterwards Amirzhan Kosanov, who received 16% of the votes.

Two months later, journalist, opposition figure, member of the Politburo of the National Social Democratic Party Yermurat Bapi proposed Zhanbolat Mamay's candidacy for the post of head of the political organization. However, members of the NSDP did not support him, being suspicious of the activist, who, in the opinion of the majority, worked for the current government.

An angry Mamay dragged Bapi into a "muddy" adventure. He put him in touch with a fugitive criminal, the head of an organized criminal group, ex-akim of the Atyrau region, Bergey Ryskaliev, to conclude a deal to purchase the NSDP. It ended sadly: a letter got on the social network, not without Mamay's help, from which it became clear what was the subject of bargaining. As a result, Ermurat Bapi was expelled from the party in disgrace. This was a serious blow to the NSDP, which at that time was the last island of opposition in the country. The party could no longer recover from this. The people's confidence was undermined.

Then a month later Zhanbolat Mamay and the Tulegen Zhukeyev announced the creation of the "Democratic Party of Kazakhstan". But they did not receive support - they failed to register DPК due to the small number of supporters.

In year 2020 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan attempted to intercede for Mamay.

Our source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan said that among the main demands of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan was to include in the resolution a mention that the party of Mamay the "Democratic Party of Kazakhstan" were not given the opportunity to register in 2020. Conduct a general meeting of the party. This point was lobbied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. And he was helped by the ambassador of the European Union and the Latvian deputy Ameriks. How an opposition party can be advertised and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan is a dubious moment. How much of oppositionist is left in Mamay when the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan personally recommends him, promotes him through his lobbyists?" commented a close ally of Mukhtar Ablyazov, head of the Open World Foundation, Lyudmila Kozlovskaya.

At the same time, Mamay began to act as the organizer of numerous rallies. Moreover, as noted by other oppositionists, the police were loyal to him: the activist was not detained for a long time, as well as his supporters. The other protesters such as the members of the DCK party could not even dream of such a thing.

It is interesting that in a number of cases Mamay chose the "Chinese threat" as the topic of the rallies. There is no truth under his feigned anti-Chinese rhetoric. Mamay did not go beyond shouting and slogans "Democrat". During all this time, he did not meet with any of the ethnic Kazakhs who got out of the notorious re-education camps in the XUAR and held more than 220 protests near the PRC consulate in Almaty. He didn't even try to help them in any way. It is possible that in this case "an activist" calling himself a national patriot is already serving some pressure groups in Russia, which looks askance at the attempts of China to expand its economic presence in neighboring countries. For Mamay, the main thing is money, in pursuit of which he does not disdain anything and is even ready to trade in national interests.

However, as soon as the anti-China protests subside, Mamay immediately adopted a new attitude. He returned to the old slogans about the struggle for democracy but the situation has changed recently. When it became clear that no one had any more confidence in Mamay, the attitude of the security officials towards him changed. At the last meeting, they even tried to detain the boozer, albeit somehow sluggishly.

It is quite possible that the interview of another oppositionist, businessman Barlyk Mendigaziev played a role in cooling the authorities towards Mamay.

In a conversation with Yermurat Bapi, he said that Mamay had enlisted the support of a fugitive criminal, the head of an organized criminal group, the ex-head of the Atyrau region, Bergey Ryskaliev.

As Mendygaziev said, Ryskaliev finances Mamay and his fake Democratic Party, in addition to the authorities.

Everything was revealed when the activist organized a meeting between Mendigaziev and Ryskaliev. According to the businessman, after a conversation with the ex-akim, he realized that Mamay was working for the authorities and was another project. Mendigaziev summoned Mamay to an open debate in order to publicly expose him. But Zhanbolat, as always cowardly refused, realizing what threatens him.

After this interview, Bapi decided that he would have to "rethink" his attitude towards Mamay.

I completely trusted Zhanbolat, and did he hide from me that he had jumped under Ryskaliev's wing?" Bapi said.

All these betrayals show that Zhanbolat Mamay is a puppet of the authorities, as well as other players at home and abroad. His main goal is to discredit the opposition in the eyes of the public. For this, he is rubbed into the credibility of opposition-minded people.

The hypothesis that Mamay is financed by the authorities is also confirmed by the fact that the activist, who neither holds a job nor a business, has a respectable big house in the foothills of Almaty and a private car. In addition, he pays millions of bills for the education of a child at the elite school Tamos Education, in which a year costs from 1.4 to 4.4 million tenge, and also regularly rests abroad.

In addition, Zhanbolat Mamay spends huge sums on constant flights between cities, filming videos and promoting them on social networks.

The first deputy chairman of the Nur Otan party, Bauyrzhan Baibek, also exposed Mamay. He publicly won a court case against an activist who leaked a number of false, defamatory materials on social media. During the trials, Zhanbolat Mamay was never able to present any evidence in his favor. Although he tried to arrange a circus performance from the court, presenting 2 thousand pages for review, allegedly testifying to the violations committed by Baybek when he was mayor of Almaty. In fact, it turned out that all these were rumors collected by him on social networks, as well as links to posts and materials in the media, which were not at all related to the essence of the matter. By the way, after the trial, all these materials were closely studied live by famous bloggers.

Despite the public invitation, Mamay ignored this event and did not take the opportunity to prove his case. As noted by activists, the papers turned out to be a complete profanation.

Mamay's vitality, despite repeated revelations, numerous criminal cases, judicial fiasco, open disregard for the Kazakhstani laws, his confrontation with almost all opposition leaders clearly shows the validity of the conclusions that he is a project of power. Along the way, Mamay became a tool for settling scores with opponents and solving problems for others, including international players. First of all, of course, for the interested circles of Russia, which provides Mamay with considerable financial and organizational assistance.

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The truth about Zhanbolat Mamay: who is behind the oppositionist?

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