Russian servicemen of the CSTO peacekeeping force contingent in KazakhstanMINSK, Jan 23CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas said that the organization's actions in Kazakhstan received a lot of positive assessments, including in the West, and negative feedback was politicized. and negative assessments, I consider them politicized, of course. In fact, it is hard to deny that all these actions benefited, first of all, Kazakhstan in ensuring the security of people and the security of the state,» Zas said in an interview with the Belarusian ONT TV channel shown on Sunday. 
In Kazakhstan, 1822 criminal cases were opened after the January riots. He noted that this week he communicated online with Assistant Secretary General of the UN Miroslav Enchey, who «also positively assessed our actions.» The CSTO Secretary General emphasized that all the actions of the organization in Kazakhstan were absolutely legitimate, were carried out in strict accordance with the legislation of the participating states and in the legal field that was created in the CSTO. «The most important outcome and result of this mission … we assisted Kazakhstan in ensuring the security, stability and territorial integrity of the state. We confirmed and demonstrated the unity of our organization, the readiness of our states shoulder to shoulder to take all necessary measures to ensure the security of our common defense space. We got the first experience, and positive experience at that, of the use of our collective defensive forces,» he continued. Zas stressed that «the very appearance of peacekeepers, the first echelons of the peacekeeping contingent, sobered up some hotheads, frustrated plans.» «And this is Kazakhstan's assessment that the appearance of our peacekeepers, their actions had a positive impact on the situation, contributed to turning this situation around, and already (the situation — ed.) is returning to normal,» he added.
Dear ambition. Why Erdogan's dream of empire collapsedMassive 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 until January 19 and launched a counter-terrorism operation. According to the UN, during the protests in Kazakhstan, about 1,000 people were injured. According to the country's Prosecutor General's Office, 4,578 people were injured as a result of the riots, 225 people were killed, including 19 security officials. Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev dismissed the government, headed the Security Council 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. The successful completion of the CSTO mission was announced on January 13. Then the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan stated that there were no more foreign military in the republic.
