Military men patrol a street in Alma-AtaPARIS, Jan 17, by Anastasia Ivanova.A fugitive Kazakh banker, Mukhtar Ablyazov, who lives in France, told RIA Novosti that he had nothing to do with the start of the protests in Kazakhstan on January 2, but called for expanding the protests on January 3 and 4, when the Kazakh authorities had already complied with the demands of the protesters and returned prices for liquefied gas, growth which was the cause of discontent. «We organize protests every three weeks, so you know. December 16 — one, November 20 — two, October 23 — three. Another question is what exactly this protest, on January 2, when people came out with demands reduce prices for liquefied gas, we have nothing to do with this,» Ablyazov said. According to him, it was a spontaneous protest that the opposition decided to take advantage of. «On the third day, I went live. I called to join and support… On January 4, seeing that the protest is gaining momentum, accordingly, we have again published an algorithm of actions (including the seizure of administrative buildings),” the source said. and Ablyazov began to coordinate and scale the protest movement throughout the country. «We gave our phones and coordinates here. We have a headquarters (in Kiev), which said what needs to be done, and people received a guiding star ahead, they did not need to call for this, look for leaders, they knew what to do. And people started moving in this direction,» the banker said.CSTO will protect organization members from color revolutions, Matvienko saidAfter Ablyazov's calls from abroad, protests that began on January 2 in the gas-producing city of Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan spread to Alma-Ata and other cities in the country, turning into violence, death and looting. The authorities of Kazakhstan called it an attempted coup. Ablyazov believes that the provocations that led to the shooting and looting at the protests were allegedly staged by the authorities with the help of instigators. According to the country's Interior Ministry, the violence was caused by an attack by militants who fired on and attacked the weapons arsenals of law enforcement agencies. The fugitive banker also claims that there were no foreign fighters at the protests. At the same time, earlier the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said that foreign fighters, including those from Afghanistan and the Middle East, took part in the aggression against Kazakhstan. According to him, some militants in Kazakhstan did not speak Kazakh. Asel Artakshinova, director of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Health, confirmed this, saying that people who did not speak Russian or Kazakh applied for medical help. Some of them later, according to her, even left intensive care units accompanied by unknown armed persons. Ablyazov himself has been living abroad for many years. In Kazakhstan, the court found him guilty of creating a criminal community and embezzling BTA Bank funds, the damage exceeds $7.5 billion. The unregistered movement «Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan» headed by Ablyazov is recognized in the country as an extremist organization. In addition, the ex-head of BTA Bank was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the murder of business partner Yerzhan Tatishev in 2004. gas. Prices were lowered, but the protests continued and 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-terrorist operation. 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 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, the peacekeepers are returning from Kazakhstan.
