Kazakh police are investigating who fired three shots through the windows of the independent newspaper “Taszharghan” in Almaty. Ironically, the bullet holes were discovered on the Fool’s Day, April 1. The newspaper is highly critical towards the authorities, although there are very few author materials — most publications are reprints from the internet, and those that are not demonstrate extremely low quality of journalism and lack objectivity.

“This is a warning for us,” said Ermurat Bapi, the newspaper’s founder to RFE/RL, “We often deal with corruption and sensitive cases within the government”, he adds, although he is reluctant to blame the authorities, alleging that some high-ranking oligarchs may stand behind.

Police say they have no information on who could have fired the shots. Back 2001-02 there was a big wave of attacks at the independent press, with a TV channel shut down, newspapers massively brought to court and journalists beaten up. But it has not been happening for quite a long time and it is really hard to rule out hooliganism. Or even PR?