Burned car in Almaty, Kazakhstan MOSCOW, Jan 10 In Kazakhstan, Monday is declared a day of national mourning for those killed in the riots in the republic. The exact number of victims is still unknown. The Ministry of Health previously published a report on 164 deaths, of which 103 were in Alma-Ata. However, the department subsequently deleted this information. It began with gas Mass protests in Kazakhstan began on January 2 — residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the west of the country opposed a twofold increase in prices for liquefied gas. Later, the protests spread to other cities, including Almaty, Aktau, Shymkent, Nur-Sultan and Kokshetau. The government of Kazakhstan went to meet the protesters and lowered the prices for liquefied gas to 50 tenge per liter (about 11 cents). Nevertheless, the protests continued. On January 4, Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev recorded a video message in which he called on the protesters to «show prudence» and not to commit illegal actions. However, the protests turned into political ones, the protesters began to demand the resignation of the government, the president, and the withdrawal from the politics of the former president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. In Almaty, thousands of people took to the central square, the police used flash bangs and tear gas to disperse the protesters. The President of Kazakhstan declared a state of emergency in the Almaty region on January 5 and dismissed the government. The President of Kazakhstan accepts the resignation of the government In Almaty itself, protesters seized the building of the mayor's office of the Almaty region. Clashes between protesters and police officers were observed in the city center, security forces used special means, several police officers were captured and beaten by protesters, their weapons were taken away from them. They set fire to the city administration building and the district branch of the ruling Nur Otan party. In addition, the protesters set fire to the residence of the President of Kazakhstan in Almaty. They also seized the building of the office of the TV channel «Mir 24», set fire to the building of the branch of the state television channel «Kazakhstan». Protesters later took over the Almaty airport, and in the city of Aktobe in northeastern Kazakhstan, protesters took over the local administration. The security forces used water cannons against them. In Taldykorgan, protesters demolished a monument to Nazarbayev. There were clashes between security officials and protesters in the city of Pavlodar. On the same day, Tokayev said that he turned to the leaders of the CSTO countries for help, considering the unrest in Kazakhstan as external aggression. The CSTO countries supported the proposal of the Kazakh leader: for the first time in the history of the organization's existence, peacekeepers were used to protect law and order in another country.
The CSTO forces allowed the Kazakh security forces to be sent to Alma-Ata, Tokayev said In addition, the President noted that all the demands of citizens, expressed in peaceful forms, were heard. An anti-terrorist operation began in Kazakhstan. As a military expert, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko told RIA Novosti, thanks to the presence of the CSTO peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan, it was possible to turn the tide in the fight against illegal armed groups. The main purpose of the military presence of peacekeepers is to stabilize the situation. «The very fact of such military support leads to the fact that the Kazakhstani security forces act confidently and accurately, solve the tasks of neutralizing illegal armed formations and eliminating the consequences of riots and armed clashes,» the expert said. There are no periods for the CSTO peacekeepers to stay in Kazakhstan. But, according to the press secretary of the President of Kazakhstan, Berik Uali, the peacekeepers will stay in the country no longer than a week. At present, the country has a state of emergency until January 19, the curfew prohibits people from taking to the streets from 23.00 to 7.00. The country has begun to gradually return to normal life — public transport, shops have resumed work, air and railway communications are being restored. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, as a result of the January riots in Kazakhstan, 16 security officials were killed and more than 1.3 thousand were injured. In total, about 6 thousand people were detained, 125 criminal cases were initiated.
