Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 May of 2021 in Central Asia is remembered for the end of Ramadan and pardon of prisoners, trip of the presidents of two countries to Moscow, deficit of air tickets and difficult yet encouraging epidemiological situation in the region. CABAR.asia provides a brief review of the most significant events in the region that took place last month. Kazakhstan General epidemiological situation Before the middle of May, Kazakhstan recorded the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, about 2,000-2,500 registered cases a day. After the 20s of May, there is the reduction of coronavirus cases. The number of detected coronavirus cases in the last week of May reduced from 15 thousand to 12 thousand cases, or 21 per cent, compared to the third week of May. In general, the incidence rate declined 1.6 times last month. As is known, Kazakhstan was divided into three zones: red, yellow and green. The regions are assigned a colour based on two indicators: the number of reproductions or infection transmission from the infected person to a contact person, and the second factor is the morbidity rate among 100 thousand people per week. “Red” zone refers to the city of Nur-Sultan, as well as Akmola and Karaganda regions. “Yellow” zone refers to the city of Almaty and Atyrau, Pavlodar, Western Kazakhstan, Kostanai, Northern Kazakhstan regions. The remaining 8 regions are located in the “green” zone. Vaccination As of the end of May, nearly 3.2 million vaccine doses were used, and 2,131,519 persons were vaccinated with the first component, which is 21% of the population to be vaccinated. The second component was already administered to 1,074,954 persons. Kazakhstanis may get the second dose of coronavirus vaccine on the 21st day, not 45th day, if need be. Currently, Kazakhstan is carrying out the mass anti-Covid vaccination with the Kazakhstan vaccine QazVac, Russian Sputnik V and Chinese Hayat-Vax. Nearly 2 million double doses Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 are expected to arrive in June: the first batch of “CoronaVac” in the amount of 500 thousand doses was delivered by special flight to Almaty. The vaccine was manufactured by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company. President of Kazakhstan enacted the law banning sales of lands to foreigners President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev enacted the law banning sales of lands to foreigners. The text of the law will be published later. Earlier, the parliament adopted the law banning possession of agricultural lands by foreigners, kandas (the term “oralman” is replaced by “kandas”, which means “of the same blood” in free interpretation), and foreign legal entities. The purpose of the draft law was to ban the ownership of agricultural land plots, both as a private property and for temporary use, by foreigners, stateless persons, foreign legal entities, legal entities of Kazakhstan with foreign participation, international organisations, research centres with foreign participation, as well as kandas. The draft law regulated the issues of transfer of agricultural lands in cases of termination of citizenship of Kazakhstan and when foreign citizens and legal entities become participants of a legal entity of Kazakhstan. Tokayev initiated the new law. He commissioned to immediately regulate this issue to stop rumours that the lands of Kazakhstan could be sold to foreigners. The land issue is a sensitive issue for the Kazakhstanis. In 2016, the republic encountered a wave of mass protests against amendments to the land law that allowed foreign citizens and legal entities to lease agricultural lands for 25 years. In addition, the amendments provided an opportunity to purchase agricultural lands from the state (however, the authorities emphasised then that the document did not provide for the sale of lands to foreigners). As a result, the then president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, declared the moratorium on these amendments that expires at the end of 2021. The incumbent head of Kazakhstan, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, at the end of February instructed to draft the land law immediately. In spring, the document was submitted to the parliament, yet its discussion was accompanied by debates. On April 15, the lower house of parliament (Mazhilis of Kazakhstan) adopted the draft law of Tokayev with their amendments and permitted foreigners to lease lands for afforestation for up to 25 years, which caused discontent of some Kazakhstan activists. According to the Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 supporters of the document, this wording was made up to avoid the demands of the people after “land” protests of 2016. After criticism, the Senate returned the draft law to the Mazhilis and suggested to provide lands for individual afforestation to the citizens of Kazakhstan and legal entities of the republic without foreign participation, and the lower house supported this suggestion. According to the head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, currently agricultural lands are leased by seven legal entities with foreign participation. The total area of these lands is 74.4 thousand hectares. Amendments to the electoral law President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev endorsed amendments to the constitutional law “On elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan”. These amendments reduce the election threshold for political parties from 7% to 5% of the number of voters. They provide for the introduction of the “against all” column in voting bulletins of all levels. In addition, amendments have been made to introduce direct election of the heads of administrations (akims) in the cities of regional subordination, villages, small towns and rural districts. Candidates may independently come forward as candidates or run on behalf of political parties. Now, deputies of local representative bodies in the republic elect such heads of administrations. In the second half of this year, 836 akims will be elected by direct voting – only citizens of Kazakhstan aged 25 and over will be allowed to vote and they must be eligible according to “qualification requirements under the civil service law”. In January 2021, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev noted that the column “Against all” must be introduced to voting bulletins of all levels. In his opinion, the threshold reduction for parties in the parliament must encourage political alliances to participate in elections. Tokayev’s visit to Tajikistan On May 19, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, upon invitation from President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon, arrived on a two-day official visit to Dushanbe. It was the first foreign visit of President of Kazakhstan in 2021. Presidents of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan discussed the issues of development and extension Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 of friendly relationships and strategic partnership between the two countries. A meeting in the capital Palace of Nations was held with a limited number of participants, and then with participation of the parties’ delegations. Tokayev and Rakhmon. Photo: Press Service of the President of Tajikistan During the meeting, Emomali Rakhmon and Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev shared opinions about development of relationships between the two countries in diplomatic, interparliamentary, trade and economic, research and technical, cultural and humanitarian, and security areas. The Tajik-Kazakh negotiations resulted in the signing of seven documents. During negotiations, the heads of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan discussed the outbreak of violence in Afghanistan. The main problem of Central Asia, according to Emomali Rakhmon and Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, remains the situation in Afghanistan that escalates after the withdrawal of USA and NATO forces from the country. The visit of Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev to Tajikistan and meeting of the Kazakhstan leader with ‘friend Emomali’ that followed the conflict on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 were recognised by experts as the willingness of Kazakhstan to show itself as a peacemaker in the region. The destabilisation in the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border could trigger the dedicated involvement of Nur-Sultan into the Central Asian integration. Nazarbayev failed to support the idea of installation of a monument to him Press Secretary of the ex-president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev Aidos Ukibai said that the ex-president “didn’t support” the idea of installation of a new monument to him. Earlier at the international conference, Bilal Cakici, the Deputy Secretary General of the International Organisation of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), offered to install a monument to Nazarbayev in Turkestan, the administrative centre of Turkestan region. Amid yet another initiative related to the monument installation, social media spread the photos of a sculpture resembling the ex-president at his young age. Next to the statue are the members of Ak Zhol, the party of the so-called parliamentary opposition. Some experts suggested that the new monument is likely to be installed in Turkestan by the 6th of July. Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 The monument resembling Nazarbayev in his younger years. Photo: kz.media Month in Review: Central Asia in May 2021 The initiatives to honour, install monuments to Nazarbayev, who had ruled the country for almost 30 years, are frequent in Kazakhstan. The ex-president said that he did not like such initiatives. Monuments to Nazarbayev are installed in several towns of Kyrgyzstan. In July 2020, amid the outbreak of the pandemic, the monument to the ex-president was opened just before his birthday in the capital renamed in his honour. The name of Nazarbayev was given to the capital airport, central streets in large cities, the university and a network of schools. Some cities of Kazakhstan have parks of the first president, sports centres and museums. The Capital City Day celebrated on July 6 “coincides” with the birthday of the ex-president and is declared a day off. According to political analysts, there is the personality cult of Nazarbayev in the country.