Servicemen patrolling one of the streets NUR-SULTAN, Jan 8 The situation in the Mangistau region of Kazakhstan is assessed as stable, all facilities and city services are operating as usual, regional commandant Zhanarbek Baktybaev said. Earlier it was reported that residents of the city of Aktau, the administrative center of the Mangistau region in western Kazakhstan, were outraged by the actions of the protesters, which blocked traffic on roads. Residents of the regional center on the eastern coast of the Caspian organized into groups and tried to force the protesters to leave the road. «Today the situation in our region is stable. Objects and city services are working as usual,» Baktybaev was quoted by Sputnik Kazakhstan in its Telegram. In the region, checkpoints are being established at the exits from the region and between settlements, armed patrols continue to be on duty on the street. Mass protests in Kazakhstan began in the first days of 2022 — residents of the cities of 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.
