Bot farms in Kazakhstan (sequel)

The ACCA publication about Kazakhstan’s secret bot farms and the people behind them made a lot of noise. The person, who told us about them, is a former employee of the bot farm. During our second meeting, he told us that the persons, mentioned in that publication, were very offended. They were so offended that they turned to the appropriate structures with a demand to ban access to the ACCA portal in Kazakhstan. They are actively looking for our authors in Kazakhstan, and it seems they even turned to the National Security Committee for help. They were so offended that they even instructed their bot farms to discredit the Analytical Center for Central Asia and convince people that the first publication was “sponsored with the aim of blackening good and honest people’s reputation”.

However, these messages were not a surprise for us, because all this time we have seen an active surge of interest from Kazakh social network users, whose accounts had no photos, no posts, no friends, no enemies. So, they were fakes or, in other words, bots. All of them were interested in one thing, “Who we are? Where are we from? Who works for us?” This, in our opinion, testifies only to one thing that we talked about what we should not talk about. And, of course, there were accusations of corruption, realization of someone else’s orders. Apparently in Kazakhstan, they are used to judge by themselves. Therefore, the first question that we asked our source during the second meeting was (and we are sure of this) the most sensible and logical.

– Why did you need all this? Maybe you just work out someone else’s order?

– No, that’s not the point. I don’t want your readers to think that I am settling scores, trying to take revenge, getting rid of competitors, or that I was paid to defame the people mentioned in the first publication. This is absolutely not the case.

– We will return to your motives later. First, we would like to know what happened after the first part of the interview was published on ACCA? What was the reaction?

– Active cleaning in the ranks of bot farm has begun. The leadership of bot farm (Samat Nurtaza and Aydos Zhukanuly) began to actively refute this information on social networks. However, this didn’t seem to be enough for Erlan Karin (adviser to the President), and he began to turn to other structures to help him figure out who was guilty of leaking information.

– After the publication, Erlan Karin wrote a closed post on his page stating that our article is sponsored, black PR, and so on …

– What do officials usually do? When the question does not concern them or they are not really involved, they simply remain silent. But when something, that should not have come out, comes out, they begin to make excuses.

– Our sources in Nur-Sultan reported that the question was even raised about blocking access to the ACCA website in Kazakhstan. Have you heard about this?

– I heard this. I also heard that these people tried to connect the National Security Committee to this issue. What is the situation now? I don’t know. It is possible that you will be blocked. Karin, I repeat again, will not let this matter slip and will try to find your source of information. In addition, later you published the second material on this subject and stated that there would be another interview …

– Well, our interest is clear. We have a vocation to tell people the truth. The interest of the trio, you have mentioned, is so that there are no more publications. It is also quite clear. What is your interest in making this information public?

– I am against the use of tools, such as bot farms, against the people. If they were used for good, in some critical situations, when, for example, a revolution is ripening or social rebellion, it can be. But when it is used for reprisal with disliked people, it is incorrectly.

– Please, give the most striking examples of the work of a bot farm?

– A striking example is how bot farms were actively promoting the project “Kosanov”. (ACCA’s note: Amirzhan Kosanov is a politician, public figure, presidential candidate in the election of 2019. He got 16% of votes, which is a record indicator for opposition candidates in the history of independent Kazakhstan.)

– What does it mean “promoting”?

– Kosanov did not have any campaign trips to the regions, any leaflets or materials, etc. His headquarters was passive. But for his promotion, a bot farm was actively used. There were lots of posts about Kosanov on social networks. They distributed voice messages to messengers that people needed to vote for him. On forums and websites, they also called for this. And when Kosanov lost (ACCA’s note: by the way, he recognized Tokaev’s victory in the elections even before the official results were announced), the farm started to work in the opposite direction. They began to accuse him of being an enemy of the people, of being a traitor …

– I’m sorry to interrupt you, but there is some kind of contradiction. Why do the authorities, and the bot farms, according to you, are financed from the state budget, need to promote an opposition candidate?

– Then, there was a big problem – the predicted low turnout in the elections. No one wanted to participate in them, because the old opposition insisted on ignoring the election. They also recalled that Kosanov had already agreed to a deal with the authorities and that he should not be trusted. That is, Kosanov’s candidacy was initially in a losing situation. For the entire period of the electoral campaign, he traveled to only a few villages in the North Kazakhstan region, where his electorate was not. He had to travel to other regions. That is, Kosanov simply created the appearance of participating in the elections. The main goal of the bot farms was not to support Kosanov, but to attract the population to the elections, at least 40 percent of the protest electoral mass who wanted to ignore these elections! And using the situation with Kosanov, to create the appearance of fair democratic elections, but they overdid it. As a result, many people came and voted for Kosanov. The authorities began to panic. They were afraid that Kosanov would subsequently become the new leader of the opposition masses, that people would demand at least a second round of elections, and, as a maximum, a complete review of the results. Therefore, the bot farm was ordered to spoil his reputation, and they, I think, coped well with this task. Moreover, they coped with the same tools that the opposition used on the eve of the election. And when people, who were unhappy with the election results, saw bot posts on social networks that Kosanov was Akorda’s project (Akorda is the residence of the President of Kazakhstan), that he was a fictitious candidate, their aggression against the authorities moved to Kosanov.

When rallies against Tokaev began last year, bot farms were turned on again. Of course, the authorities could turn off the Internet in the usual way, but this was fraught with a social explosion, so they preferred to use bot farms, which again began to blame Kosanov for everything. And again it worked. Yes, a certain part of the people was dissatisfied with the authorities and the elections, but the most part of the electorate swallowed it all.

I have an another example. The National Council of Public Confidence (NCPC) was created in the country. By the way, it was also a project of Erlan Karin. Great hopes were pinned on the NCPC, because it was planned that they would develop ideas for reforming Kazakhstan’s legislation with a focus on its liberalization. Time passed, but the members of the NCPC did not live up to expectations. Moreover, recently one of the members of the NCPC, Bakhytzhan Bukharbai, voluntarily resigned from the NCPC, because the government does not listen to the advices of the National Council. And now the bot farms are again attracted to work on the NCPC.

– What kind of work?

– Firstly, to denigrate those people who have authority on social networks and opposed the NCPC. By the way, there were not so many such people. The attacks were trivial. The bots simply attacked these people all together, insulted them, and this led to the fact that instead of criticizing the NCPC, they were forced to be distracted by the answers to the bots.

– I would like to clarify a small detail. Who owns the project “Kosanov”?

– It belongs to Erlan Karin. Do you remember the project “Zhana Kazakhstan”? The forum “Zhana Kazakhstan” was positioned as a “new opposition” group. It was created in 2018. The project existed for less than a year and was closed. These are the same people who implemented the project “Kosanov”. By the way, I forgot to add … According to my data, last year, for the project “Kosanov”, Erlan Karin received the order “Dostyk” (this order is awarded to citizens for their fruitful work in maintaining mutual consent in society, for their merits in strengthening peace, friendship and cooperation between peoples. And the spokesman for the President, Berik Uali, received the order “Kurmet” (citizens are awarded for services in the development of the economy, social sphere, science and culture, education, for exemplary service in state bodies and active public activities). Oddly enough, the blogger Samat Nurtaza received a letter of thanks from the President … for his contribution to journalism. Although that day, mainly those, who participated in the election campaign, were awarded. However, Samat Nurtaza is not related to journalism, as such.

– Why?

– Samat Nurtaza worked for a long time in government agencies, including as a press secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. Then he was dismissed, but they promised him the post of deputy akim, if I am not mistaken, of Kostanay region. But, apparently, something did not grow together. When Erlan Karin was appointed adviser to the President, he placed his close associate, Samat Nurtaza, at the Institute of Eurasian Integration as head of the Information department. And so far as he had to supervise his bots, Nurtaza additionally invited Anuar Shotbai, who, as I already told you in the first interview, has no education. But at the same time, he was listed at the institute, because he is also an approximate person of both Karin and Nurtaza. Evidence that all three are interconnected can be found on social networks. There are even posts where Nurtaza and Shotbai are very complimentary about Karin. There was even a joke when they compared him to Kunaev (Dinmukhamed Kunaev was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1964-1986).

– Are there any other examples of bot farms’ work?

– One of the last was an attack on Zhanbolat Mamay, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, which was unable to hold a constituent congress. They began to denigrate Mamay, supposedly Mamay was the project of Akorda (the residence of the President of Kazakhstan), the project of the Library (the residence of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev). Moreover, not only nurbots (the common name for bots praising power), but also fans of Mukhtar Ablyazov (a runaway banker, an oppositionist) actively joined this process. In my opinion, this was done specifically to show that people of all descriptions are opposed to Mamay. He is still being attacked by fakes.

Also from the latest attacks, it was carried out against civil activist, Marat Zhylanbaev (marathon runner). He also often criticizes the authorities. And more recently, he had a post on this topic on his page.

– Are the bot farms involved anywhere else except politics? Perhaps people are convinced that there is no torture in Kazakhstan, that human rights are respected and so on?

– No, these tasks are mainly solved by the bot farm, which is under the National Security Committee. It does not go into internal petty squabbles and works mainly to increase the image of Kazakhstan in the international field.

– What is happening in bot farms now?

– As far as I know, from my sources (since I no longer work there, I have to rely on information from former colleagues), now the cleaning has begun. Pension transfers, which I told you about in the first interview, have been stopped. They have enhanced privacy requirements. They began to sit in offices, perform the work that is prescribed in their official duties. They say that they even have increased requirements in terms of the implementation of some scientific work. Two options are possible here: either Karin’s fate is already a foregone conclusion, and he sweeps traces so that later he does not have to answer for all this. Or, after the release of your article, they need to create the appearance that there is no bot farm and was not there.

– Why? Erlan Karin is an adviser to the President. It means that he has immunity. And the rest are his close ones, so immunity also applies to them.

– Karin has many enemies. If bot farms defended state interests, nobody would care. But since they defend their own interests and pursue their goals, this may someday take a bad turn. I think he is afraid that this could damage his ambitions or career.

– What kind of ambitions?

– He wants to grow; he wants to further strengthen his personal power.

– There are rumors that this year the mayor of Almaty region, Amandyk Batalov, will retire. His post will be taken by the current Minister of Information and Social Development, and Erlan Karin will be seated in the vacant Minister’s chair.

– My sources also confirm this information. By the way, the Minister of information has the right to have a bot farm, as opposed to an adviser to the President. Thus, everything will be logical.

– What projects are currently running by bot farms?

– Now, because of your publication, they have a type of vacation. Apparently, their leadership decided to catch the silence until everything settles down. Let’s see the reaction after this interview. It is possible that bot farms will work again.