“Tokayev got rid of the schizophrenia of dual power, but everything he did today should have been done yesterday” – Arkady Dubnov

What happened to Nazarbayev cannot be called a resignation, it is just a dismissal under the influence of what is happening on the street. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has shown himself to be a politician with balls by eliminating the schizophrenic division of power in Kazakhstan.

Nazarbayev’s departure from the post of head of Sovez, which he held after the constitutional change, came too late, but, mind you, none of his entourage appeared in the public field. This means that he and his entire family are completely discredited in the eyes of society.

Now the question remains, who will get the power, whether Tokayev will be able to consolidate it around him. It is not known what political circles, elites and security officials will stand up for him, and much depends on how he will treat the opposition – as rioters or participants in the political process.

Today’s statement by Tokayev about brutal measures against troublemakers suggests that they will try to suppress the opposition, but much depends on the people on the street. In any case, Tokayev lost his time. What he did today — the resignation of the government and other actions — should have been done yesterday. Tokayev announced his intention to carry out political reforms, but he is unlikely to be successful, since there is too much mistrust in him, the politics of the system that is becoming a thing of the past. This manifested itself in a dramatic underestimation of the realities in the country, the rhetoric of threats that sounded yesterday in his statement and the unwillingness to admit his own, and not Nazarbayev’s, mistakes. In Russia, the authorities are watching the events in Kazakhstan and they will influence those scenarios for the preservation and transfer of power that are now being drawn up in the Kremlin.