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Russian military arrived in Kazakhstan
As the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday, Russian military units have arrived in Kazakhstan and, together with Kazakh security forces, control the airport in the largest city of Almaty. The airport was occupied by a group of demonstrators on Wednesday. A Reuters reporter who went there on Thursday said Kazakh security forces had removed them. Russia began sending paratroopers on Thursday at the request of the Kazakh President to help quell the devastating protests. President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev had given the order to shoot in the event of further unrest. Dozens of dead are the worst unrest since the country’s independence in 1991. Since then, Nursultan Nazarbayev had ruled with a hard hand as president. In 2019 he handed over the office to Tokayev, the successor he had chosen. The now 81-year-old Nazarbayev and his clan retained great influence in business and politics. The protests are also directed against this.
The Kazakh President Tokayev had asked to put an end to the unrest in his country.