Unloading of personnel and military equipment from the CSTO peacekeeping forces at an airfield in Kazakhstan NUR-SULTAN, 10 Jan. The involvement of the CSTO contingent allowed the authorities of Kazakhstan to protect the integrity of the country, said State Secretary of Kazakhstan Yerlan Karin. “Now almost the entire arsenal of tools, techniques to destabilize and undermine the situation in order to destroy the integrity of the state have been used. including his decision to invite the CSTO peacekeeping contingent. There was a very critical situation, the count went for minutes, hours, so tough, decisive actions had to be taken, and the president took them. The involvement of the CSTO forces thwarted all these plans to destabilize. contingent managed to concentrate our forces on conducting a direct counter-terrorist operation … this made it possible to protect state integrity, «Karin said on the Khabar 24 TV channel. Mass protests in Kazakhstan began in the early days of 2022 — residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the west p Ans opposed a twofold increase in prices for liquefied gas. Later, the protests 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 updated information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, 16 security officials were killed. On the morning of January 5, Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev dismissed the government and headed the Security Council. 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. Tokayev said on January 7 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. 
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