Fugitive banker Ablyazov calls on the West to impose sanctions against Kazakh authorities

At the same time, the former head of BTA Bank called the current protests in the country spontaneous

Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former head of Bank Turan Alem JSC (BTA Bank) who is in hiding in France and calls himself the leader of the opposition and protest movement in Kazakhstan, said he called on US and European leaders to impose sanctions on the Asian country. He said this in an interview published Saturday in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“I have written letters to the president of the United States and all European leaders to ask for sanctions against the regime”, –  said Ablyazov, who has been sentenced in absentia to long prison terms in Kazakhstan and Russia for several offences, including fraud, embezzlement and forgery.

Ablyazov called the current protests in Kazakhstan spontaneous. In his version, it is a people’s revolution that has nothing to do with outside forces.

“Our country is not Ukraine, where other countries, such as Poland, have their own interests. We often talk about Turkey and its role, but there is no Western power behind these protests”, – he argued.