Dozens killed in protests in Kazakhstan

Russian news agency TASS reported that dozens of attackers were killed in an attack on administrative buildings and a police department in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.

“They have been eliminated and their identity is being established,” said Sultanat Azirbek, a spokesman for the city’s police department, on Kazakh state television channel Khabar 24, according to TASS.

According to the news agency Interfax, reporting from the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan, the channel also reported that 12 law enforcement officers were killed and more than 350 were injured. One of the officers was beheaded, the news agency said, citing reports from the Kazakh state media.

Officials also reported that more than 1,000 people were injured and 400 were hospitalised.

Videos published by TASS show soldiers firing machine-gun fire on the streets and supported by armored trucks.

Protests began in Kazakhstan’s western Mangystau region on Sunday after the government lifted caps on the prices of liquefied petroleum gas, the main fuel for cars, causing prices to double. On Wednesday, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led intergovernmental military alliance, said its troops had been sent to Kazakhstan for a limited time “to stabilize and normalize the situation”.

The force included units from the armed forces of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the CSTO said, noting that the deployment would be for a limited period.

His deployment Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Wednesday that he had sought assistance from the coalition to help support what he describes as a terrorist threat.

It could not be determined whether any soldiers were involved in the killing of civilians.

The CSTO stated that the main tasks of the coalition troops, whom the organization described as peacekeepers, would be to protect vital state and military facilities and assist in stabilizing the position of Kazakh law-enforcement officials.

Russia, the strongest military force in the coalition and a longtime partner of Kazakhstan, has sent airborne troops as part of the mission, it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed Mr Tokayev and his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled Kazakhstan since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and resigned in March 2019, but continues to have political influence behind the scenes .

On Wednesday, the Kremlin warned against outside interference in the unrest faced by its Central Asian ally.

On Thursday, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said attacks on administrative and military facilities in Almaty, the seizure of the airport and the interception of foreign passenger and cargo aircraft were evidence of a high level of preparedness and coordination and proved that the country had been exposed to “armed incursions”. suffered “by terrorist groups trained abroad.”

Russia’s foreign ministry echoed the sentiment, describing the incidents as “an attempt to undermine the security and integrity of the state by force using externally motivated, trained and organized armed formations”.

Russia will continue to consult with Kazakhstan and other allies in the CSTO to develop possible steps, “primarily to facilitate the conduct of counter-terrorism operations by Kazakhstan’s law enforcement agencies,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Allegations of terrorism against protesters are often used by authoritarian leaders in former Soviet republics to stigmatize their opponents.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed what she described as “some crazy Russian claims” about the US behind the unrest. “Let me use this opportunity to point out that this is absolutely wrong and clearly a part of standard Russian disinformation. The playbook we have seen a lot over the years,” she said.

The uprising is the latest in former Soviet republics challenging protesters backed by the Kremlin as a corrupt, authoritarian model of leaders. Protesters in Ukraine forced a pro-Russian president in 2014, prompting Russia to send troops to annex Crimea and fueling conflict in eastern Ukraine. Last year in Belarus, Moscow-backed President Alexander Lukashenko brutally suppressed protests against a rigged election.

Although triggered by a sharp increase in fuel prices, protests in Kazakhstan were increasingly fueled by general dissatisfaction with the regime that had held power since the fall of the Soviet Union. Demonstrations have targeted the economic crisis and the country’s authoritarian political system, which allows little dissent.

Plans for protests in 2016 were sparked by land-privatization amendments, which led to rumors that the land could be taken away by Chinese investors. At the same time, a weak national currency, the tenge, exacerbated inflation and limited purchasing power.

Mr Tokayev, who was previously prime minister and chairman of the Senate, took office in June 2019 after Mr Nazarbayev elected him as his successor. The former leader has maintained influence through his role as Secretary of the Security Council.

Mr Tokayev named the nation’s capital Nur-Sultan after Mr Nazarbayev and appointed the former president’s daughter to the powerful role of Senate President. Opposition parties were largely excluded from political life, protests were often banned and activist leaders were arrested.

The Kazakh government has repeatedly promised to address high-level corruption, better share the wealth of the country’s vast natural resources, and replace its authoritarian political system. Repeated promises of large-scale privatization of state property touted as a sign of reform in the West have fallen short.

This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed