Russian TV host Ruslan Ostashko published a scathing comment on his Telegram channel about Kazakhstani MP Bakytzhan Bazarbek, who publicly revealed a scheme for channelling the country's gambling market financial flows to Russian structures through the Unified Accounting System (UAS) project.
In the post, Ostashko stated: Kazakhstan is "playing at independence", and the Russian accounting system should be accepted as an infrastructure project.
The essence of the conflict is simple. As reported by Ulysmedia.kz, Majilis MP Bakytzhan Bazarbek spoke at a meeting of the Committee on Legislation against the introduction of the UAS, pointing out its connection to the Russian company NomaPay.
According to Bazarbek, of the total turnover of the bookmaker market of 3.9 trillion tenge annually, approximately 3.12 trillion tenge (80%) will go to a Russian operator, while Kazakhstan will retain only 780 billion tenge in the form of commission.
"Russia does nothing, Russian companies do nothing, they simply created the NomaPay platform, and through NomaPay they will siphon off hundreds of billions," the parliamentarian stated.
He also noted that the UAS amendments were "sneaked in" under the radar into a bill on offences and passed through a non-specialist committee, bypassing broad discussion.
Bazarbek revealed the details of the scheme: it is proposed to remove from the legislation the requirement for mandatory agreement of the UAS commission amount with the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition (APDC RK).
The UAS operator is to be allowed to carry out banking operations without financial oversight from the National Bank. Likely, under the guise of a technical accounting system, a powerful financial operator is being created, operating in an "interesting" zone.
The most telling fact was the deletion of the MP's Facebook post the day after its publication.
"I don't know how long this post will last, but everyone must know about this!" Bazarbek warned.
His fears were confirmed.
Now, Russian TV host Ostashko in his channel comments on the situation, claiming that MP Bazarbek is "just a man who didn't get his cut".
In July, the FBRK editorial board reported that the Association of Financial Technologies and Innovations of Kazakhstan had filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Tourism and Sports for dissemination of false information in the promotion of the UAS. Fintech experts warned about the system's connections to the sanctioned bank VTB and the risks of secondary sanctions for Kazakhstan's financial sector.
Russian public pages are exerting informational pressure on Bakytzhan Bazarbek because the MP exposed inconvenient details of the project. The MP stated a simple thing: bringing the Russian TSUPIS (Centre for Accounting and Transfer of Interactive Bets) under the guise of a Unified Accounting System is not digitalisation, but control over Kazakhstan's money.
Attempts to portray criticism of the UAS as "playing at independence" only underscore the essence of the conflict: it is about who makes decisions regarding Kazakhstan's financial system — the Kazakhstani state or external beneficiaries with their own agenda.
Bazarbek raised a topic that was previously not discussed publicly. The reaction showed just how accurately he hit the mark.