President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed Defence Minister Ruslan Zhaksilikov from his post. The decision was made on 8 June.
His place was taken by First Deputy Minister and Commander of the Air Defence Forces of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan Dauren Kosanov.
Tokayev met with Kosanov the same day and instructed him to improve the army’s combat readiness.
Zhaksilikov, who previously served as deputy interior minister and commander of the National Guard, was appointed Kazakhstan’s defence minister after the January 2022 events, when mass protests sparked by the lifting of a fuel price ceiling turned into large-scale riots.
To quell them, the authorities had to ask for help from the troops of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and Russian army units were sent to Kazakhstan.
The reason for Zhaksilikov’s dismissal has not been officially announced.
Also fired on Sunday was Kazakhstan’s Transport Minister Marat Karabayev, whom Tokayev publicly rebuked in May for problems in transport and logistics.
Karabayev, 37, was the youngest minister in Kazakhstan’s current government.