In Kazakhstan the situation is calm and has remained so throughout (the coup attempt). There were no meetings or demonstrations because Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of the Kazakhstan Republic, asked the people to wait a few days and be calm.
Thursday the people of Kazakhstan will have the day to celebrate the victory of democracy.It is very important for Kazakhstan and the entire union that all political forces, ethnic groups and public and official organizations unite together with the purpose to defend democracy against the remnants of this junta and any that may follow.
In Kazakhstan today Nazarbayev issued a statement ordering the organizing of a Republic Committee to Enforce and Protect the Constitution in Kazakhstan. We will not allow this victory for democracy to be defeated or attacked again.
Today on television, Nazarbayev described his telephone call Tuesday from Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was in his dacha in the Crimea, together with his 35-person staff. (He has since arrived in Moscow.)
The junta people there were unable to arrest these people (Gorbachev's staff) since they were armed with machine guns and pistols. They slept with the Gorbachev family and defended him for three days. Gorbachev wasn't allowed to get any information during that period of time. Only today (Wednesday), they made a simple radio and learned what the junta was up to. Gorbachev learned that the junta said his (Gorbachev's) enemy number one was Yeltsin, enemy number two, Nazarbayev. That was why Gorbachev called Yeltsin first and Nazarbayev second. . . .
(After Gorbachev told Nazarbayev some of the junta leaders had arrived to talk to him), Nazarbayev told Gorbachev everything about real deals of the junta, and told him not to talk to these people until the delegation of the Supreme Soviet of Russia came to Gorbachev and explained the situation. Gorbachev told Nazarbayev, "Thank you and Yeltsin for being real friends," and that he would refuse to speak at all with junta leaders.