1/4 In trying to understand who the organized, hardened young people are who took part in protests, rioting & takeover of buildings, we’re forgetting about the unofficial security services well known in the 1990-s in Russia itself: those who enforce order in giant markets.
2/4 These are organized crews of tough guys. They collect tribute payments from traders & deliver them to their beneficiaries. They block access to outsiders, protect traders from rival crews & resolve issues. They are the partners, rivals, & enemies of official security services
3/4 The markets in Almaty and other Kazakh cities are enormous and important places. The country is a trading hub for Russia, Europe, and China. A lot of the goods that pass through these markets are contraband.
4/4 Now if we imagine that the real owners—the beneficiaries of these markets—are high-ranking officials or their relatives (like Nazarbayev relatives in Almaty), the merging of social protests with the politics and these informal detachments does not seem so surprising.
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