The Kazakh Prime Minister has compared the economic situation to wartime and told his cabinet that the “government will be ruling the economy manually”. He warned that “wartime regulations” may be a necessary step.
Obviously, this is a bad sign. Four of the sixteen laid-off oil workers who are on a hunger strike have been hospitalized. The other twelve are continuing the protest, which began March 20, after the private Burghylau oil company laid off a bunch of workers in the town of Zhanaozen.
According to Radio Liberty, “their major demand is that the company be nationalized and merged with the state KazMunayGaz company”. The workers feel that they have no other recourse for having their voices heard.