Kazakh gov’t calls for Russian help amid unrest
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as nationwide unrest escalated.
The protests were first sparked by rising fuel prices but have broadened to include political grievances.
President Tokayev accused foreign-trained “terrorist gangs” of being behind the unrest.
However, an expert on Central Asia at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House in London, Kate Mallinson, said the protests were “symptomatic of very deep-seated and simmering anger and resentment at the failure of the Kazakh government to modernize their country and introduce reforms that impact people at all levels”.
Vowing a tough response to the protests, the president imposed a nationwide state of emergency that includes a curfew and a ban on mass gatherings.
In a televised speech in the early hours of Thursday, he said he had sought help from the CSTO – a military alliance made up of Russia and five other ex-Soviet states – to help stabilize the country.
Later on Wednesday the CSTO’s chairman, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, confirmed the alliance would send peacekeeping forces “for a limited period of time”.
President Tokayev is only the second person to lead Kazakhstan since it declared independence in 1991. His election, in 2019, was condemned by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as showing scant respect for democratic standards.
Much of the anger on the streets, however, seems to have been aimed at his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has held a powerful national security role since stepping down. On Wednesday, he was fired in a bid to subdue the growing unrest.
Protesters had been heard chanting Mr Nazarbayev’s name, while a video showing people attempting to pull down a giant bronze statue of the former leader was shared online.
Staff at Kazakhstan’s main airport had to flee anti-government demonstrators, who also targeted government buildings.
Protesters stormed the mayor’s office in Almaty. Videos on social media showed a plume of smoke rising from the building, while gunfire could also be heard.
The city’s police chief, Kanat Taimerdenov, said “extremists and radicals” had attacked 500 civilians and ransacked hundreds of businesses.
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