MOSCOW, Jan 14During the entire operation in Kazakhstan, the CSTO peacekeepers have never come into conflict with the local population, said CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas. «For all these days, we have not had a single conflict between our peacekeepers and the local population. On the contrary, such support and understanding was felt actions of the peacekeepers,» Zas said on the air of Kirill Vyshinsky's program «1/6» on the Russia-24 channel. He noted that the peacekeepers were also friendly. «And I would like to say that the peacekeepers themselves, who arrived in Kazakhstan in such an urgent manner, they flew there with a clear understanding that they were flying to a friendly country, that they were flying to the country not to fight, but to ensure peace and security,» the organization's secretary general added.
The CSTO Secretary General called the entry of peacekeepers into Kazakhstan timely 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. Kazakhstan: composition and main task of the missionInfographicView
