Milaim Zeka said the former president of Kazakhstan is dead: President Toachev speaking

Kazakhstan's president, Sasym-Zhomart Toqaev, says an unacceptable “dendek” between the rich and the poor led to deadly antigovernmental protests that rocked the Central Asian country in early January.

On Friday 21, Toakev said the real “reform is needed to address problems raised by some of the protesters.

Speaking to representatives of the country's leading oil-rich businesses, he said that <x0 use of death between the declared socioeconomic agenda and the real situation has achieved a critical measure and what needs to be done now is a complete restoration of economic policy”.

“With corruption already known by all, income differences played the role of a match lit near a barrel of gunpowder, and the situation was used by terrorists, armed individuals and protest organisers”, Toqaev said, adding that he has already made difficult decisions and that such difficult decisions will be made in the future. Early January protests in the town of Janeiro, for the sudden increase in fuel prices, quickly spread across Kazakhstan and led to violent clashes in the country's largest city of Almati and elsewhere.

Much of the protestors' anger was against Toqaev's predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev, who had ruled Kazakhstan since 1989.

Kazakh authorities say 227 people were killed during the riots, including 19 implementation officers, and 12,000 others were arrested.