This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Eyewitnesses say an explosion and gunfire erupted near a main square in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, on January 6 with tensions high following the deployment of troops from a Russian-led military alliance to help quell a deadly rebellion and protect facilities in post-Soviet Central Asia’s biggest country.
Unconfirmed reports cited casualties in the Almaty incident and said military vehicles were moving toward the area.
Troops from the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) were sent to Kazakhstan overnight as violence spread since late on January 4 following protests sparked in part by a spike in fuel prices.
According to officials on January 6, police killed “dozens” of protesters and detained around 2,000 people over the past day in violent clashes that prompted President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev to ask the CSTO, a military alliance comprised of several former Soviet republics in the region along with Russia, to enter the country to help “stabilize” the situation.
State television said that 12 police officers died overnight in clashes with protesters in Almaty, and 353 more were injured.
The situation on the ground on January 6 was unclear as the government blocked the Internet and hampered other telecommunication methods, but Reuters correspondents reported several armored personnel carriers and scores of troops had entered the main square of Almaty, and gunshots could be heard as troops approached the crowd.
Toqaev has blamed foreign-trained “terrorist” gangs but he has also offered no evidence of an international link to the disorder in the post-Soviet Central Asian republic.
The situation in the oil-rich country has sparked international concern, with governments from Washington, Moscow, the United Kingdom and others calling for restraint on all sides.
“We are concerned about the violent clashes and are following developments closely. We are urging against further escalation and want to see a peaceful resolution,” a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on January 6.
The wave of protests erupted in the western region of Mangystau four days ago over a sudden hike in prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a popular fuel used in vehicles in the tightly controlled, oil-rich country.
But they have spread to cities and towns across Kazakhstan and broadened to include political grievances.
Russian airborne troops are being transferred to Kazakhstan as part of a CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Force, the organization said in a statement on its website, adding that leading units from Russia’s contingent “have already begun to fulfill the assigned tasks.”
The speed at which the Russian troops arrived on the scene in Kazakhstan was seen by some analysts as another sign of the Kremlin’s strategy to act quickly to safeguard its sphere of influence in the ex-Soviet Union.
In the past 15 months Russia has backed Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian ruler of Belarus who has faced a massive popular uprising, and acted as an intermediary to stop a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It also continues to support separatists in a war in eastern Ukraine and has recently massed tens of thousands of troops near the border with Ukraine, raising fears of a possible invasion.
Timothy Ash, senior strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, said the popular protests in Kazakhstan are a “threat” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and “an affront to his vision of autocracy and sovereign democracy.”
“He hates colored revolutions as these make him fearful that Russians could in turn rise up to overthrow him,” Ash said in a note to his subscribers, adding that Putin also fears “the prospect of a more liberal Kazakhstan turning to the West – he still sees Kazakhstan as falling under the Russian strategic umbrella.”
The CSTO’s Collective Peacekeeping Force will also include troops from the other CSTO members: Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The CSTO statement said the main tasks of the force will be “the protection of important state and military facilities, assistance to the forces of law and order of the Republic of Kazakhstan in stabilizing the situation and returning it to the legal field.”
On January 5, Toqaev sacked the government, declared a nationwide state of emergency, and appealed for intervention by the CSTO after thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with police and stormed government buildings.
Angry demonstrators, some of whom were armed with rubber truncheons, sticks, and shields, set fire to a presidential residence and the mayor’s office in Almaty, where protesters also seized control of the airport, prompting the temporary suspension of all flights.
Video recordings circulated on social media purportedly showed several bodies of protesters on the streets. RFE/RL could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
Police engaged in pitched battles with the protesters, using tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowds, but were largely unsuccessful.
The operations of RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service have been restricted, and its journalists said both Internet and telephone services had deteriorated markedly.
State television reported on January 6 that the National Bank of Kazakhstan has suspended all financial institutions.
In a major move to distance himself from the past, Toqaev on January 5 removed his predecessor, 81-year-old Nursultan Nazarbaev, from the powerful post of head of the country’s security council and relieved a longtime Nazarbaev associate of his post as chairman of the National Security Committee (KNB).
Nazarbaev had retained wide authority through the post since stepping down in 2019 as president after three decades in power, the last Soviet-era Communist Party boss still ruling an ex-Soviet state.
Some protesters laid the blame for many of the country’s problems on him, with demonstrators in the city of Taldyqorghan the capital of the Almaty region, toppling a statue of the former leader on January 5.
Protests rocked other cities and towns, including Aqtau, Zhanaozen, and Oral, where dozens of people were reportedly detained.
The United States is closely following the situation in Kazakhstan, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, referring to Kazakhstan as “a valued partner.”
Price said the United States condemned the violence and destruction of property, called for restraint by both the authorities and protestors, and urged all parties to find a peaceful resolution of the state of emergency.
