Local residents queue at one of the ATMs in Nur-Sultan NUR-SULTAN, January 8 A number of retail facilities in Kazakhstan have resumed accepting payments through banking systems, the press service of the country's trade and integration ministry said. allowed to increase cash payments of the population for purchases, «the ministry said in a press release. Zhanaozen and Aktau in the west of the country opposed a twofold increase in prices for liquefied gas. Then the speeches spread to other cities, including Alma-Ata, the old capital and the largest city of the republic: looting began there, militants attacked state institutions, took away weapons. In response, the authorities declared a state of emergency across the country until January 19 and launched a counter-terrorism operation. According to the UN, about 1,000 people were injured during the protests in Kazakhstan. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, 18 security officials were killed. On the morning of January 5, Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev dismissed the government and headed the republic’s Security Council, removing the first head of state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, from this post. At the first meeting of the Security Council under his leadership, Tokayev described the situation in Kazakhstan as undermining the integrity of the state and said that he had asked the CSTO for help «in overcoming the terrorist threat.» The CSTO Collective Security Council decided to send collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan to normalize the situation in the country. On January 7, Tokayev announced that terrorists, including those who arrived from abroad, continued to resist, and promised to destroy those who did not lay down their arms. In addition, the President noted that all the demands of citizens, expressed in peaceful forms, were heard.
