Kazakhstan improves its national security legislation

Kazakhstan is going to adjust its national security legislation. Members of the parliament have approved a draft law that allows the Ministry of Defense to use the territory of the country’s national reserves.

According to MP Aygul Kospan, two codes and eleven laws are expected to be amended. The move is necessary to improve the national security legislation, the official said.

The key idea behind the lawmakers’ initiative is the intention to get rid of corruption in the military-industrial sector with the help of digitalization of procurement of goods and services for the defense ministry. Moreover, the draft law implies that the ministry will gain access to national reserves whenever it is needed.

«We are going to provide the military with the opportunity to claim natural reserves’ land when it is needed for border protection and national defense,» Kuspan said.

The MPs also want the National Security Committee to expand its efforts in terms of patriotic, moral and spiritual education of the committee’s personnel. To make this happen, lawmakers suggest introducing standards of behavior for border guard service officials. The initiative was approved in the first reading.

In the middle of April, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev removed several top officials of the KNB from office and appointed new ones. He also ordered the secret service to develop new approaches to national security that would meet the new global reality.

All these amendments to the national security legislation were initiated after the massive unrest in January 2022. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, Karim Massimov, ex-chairman of the KNB was the key figure behind the unrest. On April 24, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.