At the end of April, alarming posts appeared on social media in the Burabay district: it was claimed that the management of the 'Shchuchinsk Amateur Gardeners' Voluntary Society' ('Shchuchinskoye DTSL') cooperative was collecting money without oversight and intimidating those who objected. An FBRK journalist travelled to the location, spoke personally with the gardeners, and studied open sources concerning the individuals involved in the scandal. The picture that emerged differs radically from the one painted on social media.
FACTUAL BASIS
The Consumer Cooperative 'Shchuchinskoye DTSL' is an association of approximately 300 garden plots in the town of Shchuchinsk, Burabay district, Akmola region. Since 2019, the cooperative has been led by Bakhtiyar Gabdullin. According to the gardeners, the cooperative was left in a severely neglected state: rotten pipes, dilapidated fences and sheds, systematic theft which, according to the recollections of long-standing members, sometimes descended into outright banditry involving knives.
Over six years, power lines, lighting, and a new water supply system have been installed, and roads have been surfaced on several streets. The work is being carried out in stages – the results are visible, as the FBRK journalist personally verified.
At the end of April, publications appeared on the TikTok platform and several other sites from the regional resource Mikrafon.kz, containing allegations of extortion, a lack of accountability, and pressure on the gardeners. In early May, a general meeting of the cooperative was held; excerpts of this meeting were also published online.
CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
To assess the scale of the 'public discontent', it is important to understand: out of 300 plot owners, only three actively joined the campaign. It is on these individuals that the editorial team has focused its attention.
Gulmira Yegiyeva (also known as Tokareva, Akhmetzhanova, Dyusyukova) Baikenovna is the main source of the informational noise. According to information the FBRK editorial team managed to establish, she acquired her garden plot on a rent-to-own basis literally on the eve of the events.
Having been a member of the cooperative for less than a month, and without paying the membership fee, Gulmira demanded financial accounts on an individual basis, bypassing the general meeting. When she was not granted access to documents containing the personal data of all cooperative members, this was presented as 'concealment of information'.
Meanwhile, Gulmira's public profile raises legitimate questions. From open sources, the FBRK editorial team was able to establish the following. Her sole proprietorship has been deregistered as of March 2025. Since 2017, the business had changed its tax registration address 20 times.
According to court rulings, Gulmira has two court-ordered debt collections totalling over 2.8 million tenge, her accounts have been frozen, and she has been banned from leaving the country. Notably, several gardeners told the FBRK journalist that Gulmira herself mentioned during conversations that she is currently a defendant in another case – for slander.
The other two followers are long-standing cooperative members with transparent motives. One of them has been a gardener since August 2016. She put forward the same arguments as Gulmira: fees are rising, no work is being done, and those who object are allegedly removed from chat groups. According to information from some gardeners, she is vying for the position of cooperative chairman, which gives her stance an obvious personal motive.
The second is the cooperative's former accountant. Her participation in the campaign is notable because in one of the video clips published by the same Mikrafon.kz, she personally admits:
"The money I stole, I returned."
According to information obtained from Chairman Gabdullin, the woman was hired essentially for social reasons, despite lacking the qualifications of an accountant. After the theft was discovered, the parties agreed on repayment through work arrangements. Nevertheless, the ex-accountant is now claiming unpaid wages and overtime.
THE 'PUBLICATION' THAT APPEARED IN FEBRUARY
The campaign's mouthpiece was the resource Mikrafon.kz – note the spelling with an 'a' instead of an 'o', which in itself characterises the publication's editorial culture. The resource appeared approximately in February of this year. No media license was found in the public domain. All five videos on the publication's TikTok channel are about the garden plot scandal in Shchuchinsk, without a single piece of documentary evidence. The first videos are dated 29 April.
THE PARTY CONNECTION
Analysis of open sources revealed curious coincidences. The website Mikrafon.kz lists the editorial office address as: Shchuchinsk, Auezov Street, 80 ('Yesil' Business Centre). According to 2GIS data, no such publication exists there; instead, the BilimdiBala centre is registered there, whose founder Azamat Kenzhebulatov is the head of the primary party organisation of the OSDP in the Burabay district. In his social media profile description, Kenzhebulatov himself states: "Public figure | OSDP. Founder of BilimdiBala. Social projects and rights protection. Mikrafon — The Voice of the People."
Thus, the Mikrafon.kz resource, according to the self-positioning of its curator, is linked to the district structure of the OSDP. This does not automatically mean the entire campaign is a party directive, but ignoring this circumstance when analysing the events would be journalistically improper.
It is also noteworthy that shortly before the garden plot scandal in Shchushinsk, a similar episode occurred: a furore surrounding the story about a horse that allegedly fell into a manhole and polluted the water. At that time, the situation was also actively accompanied by the local branch of the OSDP, which secured compensation for the victim from the involved company Kazbeef, and then publicly recorded its role as 'defenders of the people's interests'. After the conflict was resolved, media activity sharply declined.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE MEETING AND WHAT WAS POSTED ONLINE
At the general meeting, Gulmira arrived together with Kenzhebulatov. Gardeners present at the meeting told the FBRK journalist that the clips posted online were precisely the fragments where the cooperative's leadership, after prolonged provocation, reacted in a raised voice. Moments of support for the chairman, words of gratitude from the gardeners, and the constructive part of the discussion were not included in the publication.
Another detail is also telling: according to the gardeners, none of those present gave consent for video recording or public online publication. Nevertheless, fragments featuring them were posted without any reservation whatsoever.
WHAT THE FBRK JOURNALIST SAW AND HEARD
The FBRK journalist personally visited the garden cooperative and spoke with several gardeners.
Alexander, who owns three plots, said:
"About 5–6 years ago, we started carrying out work with the participation of all the gardeners on the streets. We replaced the power lines, people came out and helped amicably. Changed the water supply. Installed lighting on all the poles. All issues are resolved by mutual agreement."
Sergei, a gardener of three years:
"The chairman tries his best for people. If there were any problems, we would certainly have mentioned them at the meeting."
Pensioner Tamara Nikitichna, a gardener since 1973:
"Our first dacha was burned down – in the difficult times, they burned whole blocks. I had to buy a dacha on another street. Then Bakhtiyar came to us. And things started moving – we got security. Order was restored, there was less theft. We had electricity installed so we could use a kettle, a fridge, and a TV. I have no complaints."
Olesya, a gardener for over ten years and a member of the cooperative's audit commission:
"Some people came with some agenda of their own, under the guise of noble intentions, and are now trying to disrupt our big family and sow discord. People who come to their dachas come here to relax, work, and mind their own business. They are the real gardeners. Those pursuing a different goal – they are not gardeners at all, just troublemakers with their own plan."
Olesya also added:
"There's evidently a certain circle of people who would greatly benefit from destroying this established system from within; there is someone's interest here."
POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES
The situation carries several practical risks.
- For the cooperative: Chairman Gabdullin, instead of focusing on planned work during the height of the garden season, is forced to respond to complaints, attend committees, and spend resources on an information confrontation.
- For the gardeners: An artificially fuelled atmosphere of mistrust could destabilise a functioning – albeit imperfect – management system that the cooperative has been building for several years.
- For the district's information environment: If the scheme of 'create a scandal – play the role of protector – claim political capital' proves effective, it will be replicated in other situations.
It is also worth noting: Gabdullin himself publicly offered to hold a re-election of the chairman through the legal procedure – a general meeting. The gardeners did not take up this opportunity, because the majority are satisfied with the current leadership, and no one is willing to take on the responsibility of managing the cooperative.
THE EDITORIAL VIEW
The analysis did not find confirmation of the key accusations levelled against Bakhtiyar Gabdullin and the management of the 'Shchuchinskoye DTSL' cooperative. Demanding an account from someone who had been a member for less than a month, bypassing the general meeting, does not conform to the standard practice of cooperative management. The coincidence of the party affiliation of the campaign's key participants, the location of the Mikrafon.kz editorial office at the same address as an OSDP structure, and the previous experience of similar media activity by the same circle of people in Shchuchinsk – all this requires close observation. The FBRK editorial team does not draw conclusions about the existence of an organised intent, but records a systemic picture which it considers to be of public significance.
The 'Shchuchinskoye DTSL' garden cooperative is not a perfect structure. Utilities have not been installed on all streets, the roads need work, and some gardeners have specific grievances. This is normal for a cooperative that has been pulled out of ruin over six years. However, there is a fundamental distance between justified criticism through established procedures and a media campaign waged by individuals with obvious personal and political interests. The gardeners sense this. And they ask a perfectly logical question: who needs this and why?