Personnel of the CSTO peacekeeping forces at the airportMOSCOW, Jan 17Russian peacekeepers from the forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Kazakhstan, together with military equipment, flew from Alma-Ata to the Ulyanovsk region and the Moscow region, the Ministry of Defense said. «Russian peacekeepers from the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces in Kazakhstan loaded military equipment Il-76 planes and took off from Alma-Ata,» the report says. The Il-76 aircraft of the Aerospace Forces will deliver the personnel and equipment of the Airborne Forces units, which performed tasks as part of the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces, to the Vostochny airfields in the Ulyanovsk region and «Chkalovsky» in the Moscow region. There they organize a solemn meeting with the participation of the command of the airborne forces and members of the families of peacekeepers. After that, the personnel will begin to unload weapons, military equipment, property and make marches to the points of permanent deployment.The CSTO Secretary General assessed the likelihood of new unrest in KazakhstanEarlier, part of the units of Russian paratroopers from the CSTO collective peacekeeping forces had already been delivered by military transport aircraft to airfields in the Ivanovo region and the Moscow region. The return of all peacekeepers to their permanent deployment points is planned to be completed by January 19. «in overcoming the terrorist threat,» Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed on January 5 after unrest broke out in the country amid protests against a doubling of prices for liquefied gas. According to the UN, during the protests in Kazakhstan, about a thousand 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. The CSTO Collective Security Council decided to send collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan to normalize the situation in the country. Military personnel from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan took part in the operation. They were entrusted with the protection of strategically important objects. On Thursday, January 13, the mission was declared completed.
