Today the major opposition party in Kazakhstan, “Azat”, came out with the suggestion to convocation an Anti-Crisis Council under the president of the republic. The explicit desire of former governmental officials and losers of the parliamentary elections (which had, in fact, only one winner – the presidential Nur Otan party that occupied all seats in the Legislature) to get back to the public policy is quite understandable, but few can say the same about the measures they are suggesting.

The opposition urges the prime minister – whom they justifiably call a “president’s deputy for socio-economic affairs” – to resign because of the credit crunch, housing construction slowdown and harsh leap in tariffs for utilities and prices for food and other essential goods and services (which, in fact, is the case for most countries of the world these days):

“In result, we have decline of production in non-extractive industries, stagnation of retail turnover, failure to execute tax collection plan, drop of real income of 70% of the population, and sharp deterioration of the social climate in general”, they say, blaming the government for incompetence.

Meanwhile, the plans that “Azat” wants to make a reality evoke doubts and suspicion. Thus, they plausibly suggest to cut ineffective expenses – like Astana’s grand projects or excessive force structures budgets – in order to inject $2 billion in salary and pensions increase. This can double the already high inflation burden (nearly 15%). $7 billion more are suggested to be injected to satisfy customer and investment demand. The money are to be taken from the National Oil Fund and from the revised extraction contracts with foreigners.

Opposition also wants state to pay for 1) renovation of electricity/heating/water supply stations, 2) repairs of apartment buildings (roofs, basements etc) and construction of highways. We can only imagine how many funds will NOT be stolen in result of such actions. And, finally, oppositionists want the National Bank to nullify reserve requirements for commercial banks, so that bankers could “ensure crediting of economy and population”. However, increase of reserve requirements was deemed positively by the international analysts, because this measure helps ensure stability and predictability of the banking sector.