This Kazakhstan has broken

The country's authorities do everything to disrupt Maxim Galkin’s concerts: both sites for his performances suddenly closed for repairs. Officials from Kazakhstan are afraid to angry Putin

A week before the performance of the Russian artist Maxim Galkin in Kazakhstan, concert venues at which the event was to be held suddenly stated that they had a scene (in Almaty) and an urgent pipe replacement in the area (in Astana) was needed. That is why all events are simply canceled until October 10-15. Given that the arrival of Galkin and a number of other Russian artists, disloyal to the Kremlin, the Kazakh authorities are not opposed for the first time, it is very difficult to believe in an accident. But the republican government has never looked so comical and at the same time pale. Vyacheslav Polovinko, a correspondent of Novo-Europe, explains what Galkin of the power of Kazakhstan scares so.

In Kazakhstan, there are two parallel crops of “cancellations” of Russian artists. On the one hand, the “popular” wave: outraged by the fact that the stars support the war in Ukraine, the inhabitants of Kazakhstan arrange the most successful campaigns to discredit - and the artists in the end simply do not come. So, Polina Gagarin, Larisa Dolina, Grigory Leps, KVN Kamzyaki and several other performers of a smaller scale refused to go to the republic. Most often, there are just enough network terror for the “cancellation” when ordinary Kazakhstanis are attacking the accounts of artists and their producers, but in the case of “Kamyazyaks”, for example, a whole petition for cancellation was created, which gained more than 10 thousand signatures. For Kazakhstan, this is a lot, but there was a more significant reason for society: the leader of the Kamyzyakov Azamat Musagaliev is an ethnic Kazakh, albeit from the Astrakhan region, so his trip to the occupied part of Ukraine with a concert was especially insulting for Kazakhstanis.

On the other hand, there are attempts to prohibit the performance of artists or artists with an anti -war position (most often the same thing) from the republican authorities. Attempts usually look as ridiculous as possible. The story of the Bi-2 group in Semey, from which the musicians gathered to send the families of victims of a huge forest fire in the Abay region, became the most indicative (14 forestry workers died, who had no masks, no protective equipment, or even batteries in walkie-talkies). Shortly before the Bi-2 speech, local deputy Elzira Zhunusov wrote that the concert must be canceled, since he was “inappropriate”: the nationwide mourning has only passed, and the relatives of the dead will be against it.

The local akimat (city hall) listened to the voice of the deputy - and canceled the concert. But then people again expressed great indignation - and the akimat, allegedly clarifying the families of the victims, whether the concert of their feelings would be touched, the performance returned.

In general, in the “cultural” confrontation between Kazakhstani society and the authorities, ordinary people are now conducting a crushing account.

But there is one artist in respect of whom officials do everything so that his concerts do not take place in any case.

This artist is Maxim Galkin.

For several months in a row, Galkin, he said, did not give permission to speak in Kazakhstan, without really explaining anything. “Some kind of invented reasons, cooking bans. It stopped the sale, then no. I understand: probably, something I am so terrible for the authorities of Kazakhstan that I was so frightened by my concerts. At the moment, an inconsistent ban on holding my concerts, ”the artist himself said in a public appeal to fans. As a result, after the next wave of disturbances, the concerts were still allowed (they were not officially banned, just on the day when Galkin wanted to speak, a concert for the teacher's Day was supposed to be held in the Republic of Almaty). Officials said that there were no restrictions either for performances or jokes, but the journalists of Radio “Freedom”, citing their source, found out that the Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Alexei Borodavkin, could be an unspoken prohibition of Galkin’s concerts. According to journalists, this was his personal request. Of course, there is no official evidence of this version, but it is quite similar to the truth, given that Borodavkin is in good relations with Kasim-Zhomart Tokayev (both-the ambassador and the president-personnel diplomats).

Concerts were supposed to take place on October 8 in Astana and October 9 in Almaty. But it wasn’t there. Municipal and emergency services came to the aid of the authorities. And in the end, the central concert hall "Kazakhstan" is closed from October 4 to 10 due to the fact that the utilities decided to change water pipes in the area, so there will be no drinking water in the building. And on September 30, the specialists of the emergency department urgently came to the Palace of the Republic in Almaty on September 30, who found out that the scene in the building had broken down and decisively performed on it until October 15. The leadership of both venues was limited to posts on Instagram and went into a blank defense (the Astana concert hall completely turned off the comments on the post).

The organizer of Galkin’s concerts in Kazakhstan producer Alexei Puchkov is in shock. “Due to the fact that the akimat of the city of Astana and the QAZAQSTAN Central Designs of the Central Committee, previously, previously the abolition of this concert caused a wide public outcry, this statement on social networks, made a week before the concert, without notifying the organizer and agreeing on the cancellation or transfer with it, will be regarded as an intentional attempt to break the concert.

Otherwise, how to understand that the statement was published everywhere, but the organizers were not notified, before publishing posts of alternative solutions to the issue, they did not offer, comments on Instagram were immediately closed? ”

- Puchkov was indignant . In addition, the producer adds, on Friday, September 29, in Almaty was all right with the stage. “Our lawyers are already doing this,” he says.

Such panic behavior of officials, which is generally characteristic of Kazakhstani power for other occasions, can be explained by several reasons. Firstly, they expect that the second campaign will not be disturbing (although this time, according to the organizers, almost all tickets are sold, and some of the spectators travel from other cities-thus, inevitably). Secondly, although there is no ban on political jokes in the country, in fact it is, especially when it comes to Russian authorities. Galkin is a “foreign agent” in Russia, he sharply spoke out against the war, and over the past one and a half years, the artist “walked” at his concerts on so many Russian politicians and propagandists that his performance in Kazakhstan is akin to Putin personally in person in person. Other “foreign agents” and people with an anti -war position performed in the republic, but Zemfira, and DDT, and Spleen did not allow themselves sharp statements to the address of specific persons (maximum expressions like the President’s asshole). Galkina is impossible to control. And, unable to come up with a convincing reason for the ban on the concert, the authorities now abandon all their strength so that the performance does not take place “for technical reasons”.

It seems, however, that there is the third reason. In the fall, Vladimir Putin should fly to Kazakhstan. In November, the annual forum of border cooperation of the two countries will be held in November, and the Russian president may become one of his main actors (if he does not “cancel” himself: recently, Putin has not been responding to all invitations, as if afraid of something). And the performance of the Kremlin’s public enemy before the arrival of the Russian leader, from the point of view of both propaganda and cowardly Kazakhstani officials, is no longer a mockery, but an open spit in the face.

At the moment, the authorities of Kazakhstan are in the classic chess “fork”: each next step will take only worse. Insist on a new transfer of the concert - get an insanely bad press not only in Kazakhstan, but also far beyond its borders (Galkin is an too noticeable artist to just “throw it”). To resolve the concert is to spoil relations with Moscow very much, for which, it seems, this is also a matter of principle. And the “fork” also has a third tooth: Galkin can try to come and arrange a concert in front of these sites, and not inside them. Yes, it is very difficult to arrange, it leads to all kinds of costs, but this is a moral victory. Not to mention if the authorities of Kazakhstan begin to block the streets and approaches to these concert halls - even Galkin himself will not come up with such a comic number.

Exactly a week remained before the date of the first concert. The second call for the Kazakh authorities is already rang.