A public hearing took place in Almaty regarding the abolition of the recycling fee. Despite the obvious importance of this event for the entire 'Against the Recycling Fee' movement, the author of the corresponding petition, Sanzhar Bokayev, chose not to participate in the hearing.
According to some media outlets, activists decided to boycott the event because they were not satisfied with the venue.
It will be recalled that not long ago, Sanzhar Bokayev refused to take part in the first meeting of the working group set up to consider the petition to abolish the recycling fee, justifying his decision by saying he did not want to negotiate 'behind closed doors'.
Undoubtedly, such steps by the movement's leader, Mr Bokayev, not only undermine public trust but also negatively affect the outcome of the entire campaign.
A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Adilbek Bektibayev, has already announced a preliminary decision on the petition.
According to him, during the public discussion of the draft, no substantiated arguments were presented by the representatives of the petition's author.
Some media outlets claim that, apart from representatives of state bodies, only one activist in favour of abolishing the recycling fee, one public figure, and 40 journalists were present at the meeting.
Although it is known that the event was attended by representatives of various organisations and many public figures. This number included the founder of FBRK, journalist Kirill Pavlov.
According to the public figure, the only person present on behalf of the petition's author was Kazakhstani businessman Vladimir Dvoretsky.
According to the journalist, throughout the hearing, Mr Dvoretsky kept diverting the discussion towards the secondary ferrous metals market.
This is unsurprising, as the former head of the Union of Secondary Metallurgy Industrialists, Vladimir Dvoretsky, as we have previously written, is personally interested in the resale of scrap metal.
It is remembered that when Kazakhstan tried to introduce a ban on the export of scrap, the businessman decided to complain not to just anyone, but to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, claiming that the Kazakh side was hindering mutual trade.
During the meeting, Mr Dvoretsky mentioned that dozens of experts are working on the 'analysis' presented by Mr Bokayev. It makes one wonder which experts exactly are being referred to?
It is also worth noting that the working group members proposed restricting the import of vehicles older than seven years.
"We support this initiative and plan to submit it for consideration by the Eurasian Economic Commission. If all five member states agree, the relevant changes will be made to the technical regulations", stated Adilbek Bektibayev.