Bishkek, 19 October. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov told the Super.kg portal that in October 2020 Mukhtar Ablyazov, former chairman of Kazakhstan's BTA Bank, asked permission to come to Bishkek and use the republic's territory to organise a revolution in Kazakhstan (RBC, TASS).
According to Japarov, during the October 2020 events his then associate Melis Aspekov, who is now in prison, handed him a phone with Ablyazov on the line. "You Kyrgyz are simply great! You have already made a third revolution, and we Kazakhs have done nothing. So I am asking for your help: if you give the go-ahead, I will fly to Bishkek, settle there and organise a revolution in Kazakhstan," Japarov recounted his interlocutor as saying (RBC).
Japarov said he refused, explaining that he does not interfere in the internal politics of a neighbouring country and does not want to spoil relations with Kazakhstan. In his words, the conversation lasted about two minutes, not 40 as Ablyazov had claimed; he also rejected the opposition figure's claim that he had asked him for money (RBC, TASS).
Background: The interview refers to the events of October 2020 in Kyrgyzstan, which TASS calls revolutionary; the agency describes Ablyazov himself as a fugitive Kazakh opposition figure (TASS, BES.media).
List of sources used: RBC, TASS, BES.media
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
