The image of Kazakhstan as a criminal country has largely been shaped by the incorrect work of the media, argues political analyst Marat Shibutov.

On his Telegram channel, he writes: «What is a criminal hell? In connection with the current campaign against domestic violence, many are horrified by the number of crimes happening in our country. In reality, it’s just media politics – you can simply present news about serious and particularly serious crimes at a rate of 1 press release out of 10, or 2 out of 10, and everyone will immediately feel bad.

However, let’s take the World Bank data on various crimes for the years 2016-2017 (since then, the number of registered crimes in our country has halved) and see where Kazakhstan stands. Intentional homicides – the number per year per 100,000 population. The champion is El Salvador with 61.8 murders, and we are in 34th place with 5 murders per year. Japan is at the bottom, in 97th place, with 0.2 murders. Robbery with violence – the number per year per 100,000 people. The champion is Costa Rica with 1587 robberies per year, and we are in 28th place with 52 robberies per year. Singapore is at the bottom in 79th place, with 1 robbery per year per 100,000 people. That’s the situation; there is room for improvement and room for decline.»