Not Very Nice

Few will, and none should, mourn in itself the passing of the regime in Kazakhstan, with its close ties to Tony Blair.

But remember the name of Mukhtar Ablyazov. A banker based in France, he is accused of fraud and murder. He is also being touted as an "Opposition Leader", in which capacity he is calling for Western intervention. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya all over again. Juan Guaidó all over again. Ahmed Chalabi all over again.

And Western intervention in support of whom and what, exactly? The rebels have already been promised the support of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi militias, so the usual gang is assembling. All apparently under one command, the foreign and foreign-trained terrorists in Kazakhstan are being heard to speak Arabic. Saudi Arabia is another lucrative patron of Blair's, so he wins either way.

Not so, the rest of us. We have no dog in most fights, and rather a lot of them are between old school dictators and the Saudi Empire of Islamist terrorists. This time, we may yet be able to content ourselves with mockingly asking the New Cold Warriors which of Russia and China they were backing against the other, and why.

Better yet, though, Russia and China will stand together against the head-choppers, not because that which they sought to replace was good, nor even because at least it was not as bad, but because that was what Russian and Chinese interests both required. The rest of us could then deal with Kazakhstan exactly as much as was strictly necessary.