MOSCOW, Jan 5 There is a shootout in Alma-Ata, protesters are armed with machine guns, Sputnik Kazakhstan reports, citing eyewitnesses. «There is a shootout in Alma-Ata. According to eyewitnesses, the protesters are armed with … machine guns,» the message says. a special operation, and earlier the Ministry of Internal Affairs urged citizens not to go out. Mass protests in Kazakhstan began in the early days of 2022. Then the inhabitants of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangistau region — an oil-producing region in the west of the country — opposed a twofold increase in prices for liquefied petroleum gas. A government commission formed soon said it was ready to cut prices, but the protests spread to other cities. So, in Alma-Ata, the old capital of the republic, on January 4 and 5 there were clashes with security officials, the police used gas and flash-noise grenades. Throughout Kazakhstan, the Internet was turned off, and a number of TV channels temporarily stopped broadcasting. 
Kazakhstan is set on fire with liquefied gas On January 5, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency for two weeks in the Mangistau and Almaty regions, as well as in Almaty and Nur-Sultan. This regime provides, in particular, a curfew from 23.00 to 7.00, a ban on mass events, strikes and the sale of weapons, as well as strengthening the protection of especially important facilities. On the same day, the state of emergency, also until January 19, was extended to the entire territory of Kazakhstan. On the morning of January 5, Tokayev dismissed the government and headed the republic’s Security Council, removing the first head of state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, from this post. In addition, the President stressed that the authorities will act as tough as possible in relation to the offenders, and promised in the near future «to come out with a new package of proposals.» On the night of January 6, Tokayev held the first meeting of the Security Council under his leadership, at which he called the situation in Kazakhstan «undermining the integrity of the state» and said that he had asked the CSTO for help «in overcoming the terrorist threat.» Follow the situation in Kazakhstan in online report & gt; & gt;
