The Kazakh Committee for National Security (KNB) says it has detained a man who allegedly planned to kill President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
The KNB said on April 3 that the person, whose identity was not disclosed, worked for the intelligence agency of an unspecified country and, among other things, also planned "to create Russophobic views" and anti-Russian propaganda in the country.
According to the KNB, the detained man is a Kazakh citizen who also planned to attack other officials and carry out terrorist attacks against law enforcement officers. The KNB also said that a sniper rifle, illegal drugs, and a large amount of U.S. dollars in cash were confiscated from the suspect.
The statement also says the suspect confessed that he worked for a foreign intelligence agency. The statement gave no further details.
Kazakh officials have been on edge since early January, when protests in the remote town of Zhanaozen over a sudden fuel-price hike quickly spread across the country and led to violent clashes in Almaty and elsewhere.
Toqaev called on the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to send troops to Kazakhstan in the wake of the deadly anti-government protests, which were also directed at former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who resigned in 2019 but retained large political influence in the tightly controlled Central Asian state with almost limitless powers.
Several close associates of Nazarbaev, including his nephew Qairat Satybaldy, were arrested in mid-March.
Kazakhstan's Anti-Corruption Agency said on April 4 that several of Satybaldy's partners were arrested on corruption charges.
