Kazakhstan: People’s Party Drafting Foreign Agent Law

Deputies from the People’s Party of Kazakhstan (NPK) are working on a draft law regulating foreign agents, Orda.kz reports.

Deputy Irina Smirnova spoke about the bill on the sidelines of the Majilis, emphasizing that a separate bill on NGOs is also in development.

The bill that concerns agents is a separate bill, and the one on NGOs is a separate one. We have declared ourselves as the ones who will develop the law on foreign agents — this is the NPK,Smirnova said on the sidelines of the Majilis. 

She added that discussions on the bill’s concept are ongoing, but there is no set deadline for submitting it to parliament.

During the session, Smirnova criticized certain NGOs and foreign foundations, accusing them of attempting to influence Kazakhstan’s policies:

Thus, those who order disinformation use methods that are familiar to them to influence the country's policy from the outside. As Qasym-Jomart Kemelevich said, speaking at the national Qurultay, so-called democratic moral values, including LGBT, have been imposed on many countries for decades, and under this guise, international non-governmental foundations and organizations have interfered in their internal affairs. Upon inspection, everything turned out to be as simple as pie. Billions in budgets were simply stolen,Smirnova stated. 

She further argued that human rights rhetoric has been used selectively and called for efforts to "expose such hypocrisy and defend national interests."

At the same time, Smirnova noted that combating disinformation should not lead to restrictions on freedom of speech.

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov