Without presenting any evidence, the President of Kazakhstan asserted that the riots against the rise in the price of gas had been orchestrated from abroad.
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The President of Kazakhstan assured, Monday, January 10, that his country had defeated a “coup attempt”, in reference to the deadly riots of the past week, promising the departure soon of the Russian troops called to the rescue. Life is gradually resuming in Almaty, the largest city in this Central Asian country where the disturbances were the most serious. Authorities have intermittently reconnected the internet, but the charred facades of public buildings and the wrecks of burnt vehicles still bear witness to the violence of the clashes.
During a videoconference, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took stock of events in front of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Poutine and other allies who have deployed more than 2,000 troops in the former Soviet republic. He and the master of the Kremlin have promised a withdrawal of these forces once their mission is accomplished, while affirming that the bloody events of the last week had been orchestrated from abroad, without presenting any elements in this direction.
The human toll of the unrest, the worst that this former Soviet republic has known since independence in 1991, remains unknown. Tokayev said the number of civilian casualties was “being verified”. He reported 16 killed and more than 1,600 wounded in the police, but the total number of deaths is counted in tens according to local authorities. For the president, Kazakhstan has been attacked by “groups of armed combatants” who used anger and protests over rising fuel prices to take action.
The suddenness and violence of the riots led the Kazakh president to call on Russia for help. A multinational contingent from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led alliance, was deployed on January 6. According to the president, these 2,030 soldiers and 250 vehicles should leave “soon” Kazakhstan, Vladimir Putin confirming that his soldiers were there “for a limited period”. The Kazakh president is due to present the composition of the new government to parliament on Tuesday, the previous one having been sacked last week in an initial effort to calm protests.