“No calls were made”: Interior Ministry denies pressure on Kazakhstanis over posts about Caspian Sea tragedy

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has stated that police officers did not call social media users demanding that they delete posts about the deaths of servicemen in the Caspian Sea. Earlier, several Kazakhstanis had reported receiving such calls, while one user named Temirlan (@timporello) even published an audio recording of a conversation with a person who introduced himself as a police officer.

At a briefing in the Kurultai on 30 September, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Sanzhar Adilov was asked about reports from Threads users who claimed that law enforcement officers had contacted them after they published posts about the tragedy.

“I do not confirm any of the information you have mentioned. Police officers made no such calls,” Adilov said.

Several days earlier, a Threads user named Temirlan said that after publishing a post criticising the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the Naval Forces, he received a call from a person who introduced himself as an officer of the Almaty Police Department.

Temirlan published an audio recording of the conversation. In it, the caller, who introduced himself as Zhasulan, draws attention to the harsh wording used in the post and asks for it to be deleted, referring, among other things, to the large number of negative comments and the risk of a possible spontaneous rally. Temirlan refused to delete the post, saying that he had expressed his civic position. The caller, however, gave only his first name and did not respond when asked to provide his surname and position. It was also not possible to independently verify the caller’s identity.

Temirlan later said that people who also introduced themselves as police officers had come to his home, after which he deleted the posts. According to him, they also visited his relatives. Journalist Dinara Yegeubayeva wrote that Temirlan had been required to delete his posts on Threads and Instagram and provide an explanation. At the time, there was no official confirmation of these circumstances.

Other social media users also reported receiving similar calls. They claimed that people introducing themselves as police officers or representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had asked them to delete posts about the tragedy.

The two sides therefore give conflicting accounts: users report calls and visits from people they associate with law enforcement agencies, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs denies that police officers made such calls. At the same time, the Ministry has so far provided no public explanation regarding the origin of the published audio recording and has not said whether the identity of the person who introduced himself as a police officer in the recording has been investigated.

As previously reported, a tragedy occurred on 24 September during Naval Forces exercises on the Caspian Sea coast. A sudden deterioration in weather conditions and stronger winds swept 17 servicemen out to sea. Three were rescued and 14 died. A national day of mourning was declared in Kazakhstan on 25 September.