Probe ordered into appearance of Ukrainian flag on billboard during Putin’s visit to Astana 

The Kazakh Interior Ministry has opened a criminal investigation into how a Ukrainian flag appeared on one of the digital screens next to the opera house in the Kazakh capital Astana during a state visit to Kazakhstan by Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. 

“Anyone guilty of a crime will be brought to justice,” the Interior Ministry said, though it added that all possible explanations for the incident, including technical issues or the equipment being hacked, were being considered, independent Kazakh news outlet Orda.kz reported on Thursday.

Footage appeared on social media on Wednesday of the Ukrainian flag on an electronic billboard near the Astana Opera Theatre, instead of the Russian flag, as intended. The billboard was quickly turned off.

The deputy director of Keruen Media, which owns the billboard, told Kazakh news website KazTAG that a cable short-circuited on the LED screen on the upper section of the Russian flag. As a result, the white section was turned off altogether, and the colour became brighter elsewhere due to the surge in electricity, causing the red to sometimes appear as yellow on mobile telephone cameras.

An Orda post on Telegram showed a woman demonstrating the effect, suggesting a technical problem may indeed have been the cause.

Putin arrived in Astana on a state visit on Wednesday, during which he and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a joint statement on deepening their strategic partnership in view of the “new global order”.