Status: 06.01.2022 4:00 a.m.
A Russian-led military alliance has announced that it will send “peacekeeping troops” to Kazakhstan to control the violent protests there. The Kazakh military had previously taken action against the demonstrators.
A military alliance led by Moscow has announced that it will send “peacekeeping troops” to troubled Kazakhstan. The deployment of troops “for a limited time” was decided to “stabilize and normalize” the situation in Kazakhstan, said the current chairman of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, on Facebook. Kazakhstan’s head of state Kassym-Shomart Tokayev had previously requested help from the alliance.
Kazakhstan is currently shaken by unprecedented unrest. Protests, which were initially directed against rising gas prices, expanded into mass protests critical of the government across the country within a few days. On Wednesday, thousands of people stormed the seat of the city administration of the economic metropolis Almaty, the presidential palace in the city was reportedly in flames.
Kazakh President Tokayev promises to react harshly to protests
Ina Ruck, ARD Moscow, daily news 8 p.m., 5.1.2022
Military take action against demonstrators
Yesterday the Kazakh military intervened against the violent protests. “Terrorist gangs” had fought a fight with paratroopers in the city of Almaty, said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in a televised address. The city’s airport in the south-east of the authoritarian republic has been liberated, reported the Kazakh media, citing the deputy mayor of Almaty, Eshen Babakumarov. A “special operation” has started.
According to the media, a crowd had previously occupied the airport; According to the airport, the employees had left the site. Several airlines then canceled flights to Almaty.
Several Kazakh Telegram channels published videos that night allegedly showing the military crackdown on demonstrators in the urban area of Almaty. Shot noises can be heard on the recordings and people screaming, reports the dpa news agency.
State of emergency across the country
According to Kazakh media reports, at least eight police officers and soldiers were killed in the riot. According to the Interior Ministry, 317 other security forces were injured “by the raging crowd”. According to the authorities, more than 200 people were arrested in connection with the protests on Wednesday night alone.
Head of state Tokayev imposed a nationwide state of emergency because of the unrest. Throughout the country, there are nocturnal curfews, restrictions on freedom of movement and a ban on gatherings. In addition, there was an internet outage across the country. The organization Netblocks criticized that this apparently served to restrict comprehensive reporting on the situation on site.
Internet and cellular network switched off
The websites of the presidential office and other government agencies were just as unreachable at night as those of airports and police authorities, as the Russian state agency Tass reported. Internet sites such as the state news agency Kazinform and other media were also not available from Germany.
According to Tass, there was a complete internet failure in the megacity of Almaty, which paralyzed social networks as a central coordination tool for demonstrators. The mobile network in the economic metropolis was also dead. The Internet in the authoritarian-ruled country had already been switched off for hours on Wednesday – presumably to make new meetings more difficult. Several television stations stopped operating.
International demands for “restraint”
Tokayev accused “terrorist groups” of being behind the protests. The groups would be trained “abroad,” he said on state television. He had therefore asked the CSTO military alliance for help, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Armenia as well as three other former Soviet republics. CSTO President Pashinyan also stated that the unrest in Kazakhstan was triggered by “outside interference”.
US government spokeswoman Jen Psaki had previously denied allegations from Russia that the US played a role in the protests in Kazakhstan. Such claims are “absolutely wrong and clearly part of the Russian script for disinformation,” she said. Like the EU and the German government, the US called on all parties to “show restraint”.
Government dismissed
Larger protests in authoritarian Kazakhstan are rare. What is happening now is the biggest crisis to date in Tokayev’s term in office, who succeeded long-time head of state Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2019. The now 81-year-old Nazarbayev headed Kazakhstan from 1989 to 2019 and still controls the politics of the Central Asian country as the “leader of the nation”. Nazarbayev is a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Foreign Ministry had declared that Moscow hoped for “the situation to normalize as quickly as possible” and supported a “peaceful solution” to all problems in the neighboring country. To calm the situation, the Kazakh authorities first announced a regional cut in energy prices on Tuesday. Tokayev sacked the government on Wednesday. At the same time, he issued a warning to the demonstrators: I intend to be as tough as possible, “he said.