A soldier from the Russian contingent of the CSTO peacekeeping forces in the office of Kazakhtelecom JSC in Alma-AtaMOSCOW, Jan 14 . There was no interference in the internal affairs of Kazakhstan by the CSTO peacekeepers, said Secretary General of the organization Stanislav Zas. Kirill Vyshinsky «1/6» on the channel «Russia 24». Mass protests in Kazakhstan began in the early days of 2022 — residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the west of the country opposed the doubling of 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 throughout the country and launched a counter-terrorism operation. According to the UN, during the protests in Kazakhstan, about 1,000 people were injured. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, 17 Kazakh security officials were killed, more than 1.3 thousand were injured. On the morning of January 5, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart 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 for help from the CSTO «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 Thursday, January 13, the successful completion of the CSTO mission was announced, now the peacekeepers are returning from Kazakhstan.
