Police officers during a protest against the rise in gas prices in Almaty, Kazakhstan ALMA-ATA, 5 Jan Republic Square in Kazakhstan's Alma-Ata, where riots and clashes between protesters and security forces the night before, is fenced off with armored military vehicles, utilities are eliminating the consequences of the events, RIA Novosti reports. fragments of paving slabs, shells from ammunition — presumably rubber bullets. Mobile Internet still does not work in the city, messengers are blocked. Around the perimeter of the square are several units of military personnel, presumably stationed in the center of the city in case of a repetition of the riots. Offices of organizations near the square on Wednesday sent employees to work remotely. Civil protection officials are taking police vehicles from the Akimat (mayor's office) of Almaty, which were burned and wrecked during the riots on Wednesday night. The RIA Novosti correspondent counted about 10 damaged cars. In the early days of 2022, residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangistau region (an oil-producing region in western Kazakhstan) protested against a two-fold increase in prices for liquefied petroleum gas. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed to form a government commission to consider the situation. She announced on January 4 that she was ready to fulfill the main demand of the protesters and reduce gas prices. However, the protests have spread to other cities. In Alma-Ata, the largest city in the country, on the evening of January 4 and on the night of January 5, protesters clashed with the security forces, the police used gas and stun grenades. Tokayev urged people to show prudence and not succumb to provocations from inside and outside. He noted that calls to attack civilian and military offices are illegal. According to him, «the government will not fall,» but the country «needs not a conflict, but mutual trust and dialogue.» 
