ASTANA -- Dozens of homeowners from several regions of Kazakhstan have demonstrated in the capital, Astana, for a fourth day on April 10.
They are demanding to meet with President Nursultan Nazarbaev to discuss possible state assistance to renegotiate hard-currency mortgages because the payments have risen sharply. Police on April 10 prevented car loaded with food from reaching the protesters.
Many homeowners say they cannot pay off their hard-currency mortgages because of the decline of the tenge currency, which has lost about 20 percent of its value since February 2014.
Demonstrators called on Nazarbaev, who appears certain to win a new term in an April 26 election, to address the issue as part of his reelection campaign.