Kazakhstan, in state of emergency, asks for help from Moscow and its allies

Faced with the chaos of the situation, the President of Kazakhstan declared, Wednesday evening, January 5, a state of emergency throughout the country and asked for help from Moscow and its allies, attributing to “terrorists” trained in abroad the riots that saw crowds storm government buildings in this resource-rich former Central Asian Soviet Republic.

At least eight members of the security forces and soldiers were killed in the riots and 317 injured “by the raging crowd”, according to the Kazakh Interior Ministry quoted by local media.

“Today I called on the heads of states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to help Kazakhstan defeat the terrorist threat,” President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told state television. This organization brings together several former Soviet republics around Russia, including Belarus and Uzbekistan.

The Kazakh president, faced with protests that started on Sunday in the west of the country after the gas price hike, then spread and rioted last night in Almaty, the economic capital and largest city of the country, claimed that “terrorist gangs” who “received extensive training abroad” were leading the protests.

Massive attacks on the police

The Kazakh president had previously denounced, in a televised address, “massive attacks against the police”. “Groups of criminal elements are beating our soldiers, humiliating them, dragging them naked in the streets, assaulting women, looting shops,” he said.

The anger, which erupted Sunday in a provincial town after a rise in gas prices, spread to Almaty overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. The internet and cell phones were blocked across the country on Wednesday.

After a night of riots that saw the arrest of more than 200 people, thousands of demonstrators stormed the Almaty administration headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, appearing to have taken control of it.

Police fired stun grenades and tear gas at the protesters, some of whom were armed with batons and shields taken from law enforcement, but were unable to prevent them from entering the building, according to reporters. AFP.

Blurry information

Men in police uniform were seen putting down their shields and helmets to embrace the protesters. “They’re coming over to our side!” A woman said, hugging another protester.

Local media reported that the protesters then proceeded to the presidential residence in the city, and the two buildings were on fire.

Information impossible to verify immediately reported unrest across the country, and the capture of Almaty airport by protesters. The Russian company Aeroflot has canceled its flight from Moscow to this city.

In an effort to stem the crisis, President Tokayev had already sacked the government and declared a state of emergency in several regions including Almaty and the capital, Nur-Sultan, recently renamed in honor of former President Nursultan. Nazarbayev. A curfew is in effect from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Internet and communications cut off

Protest demonstrations are rare in Kazakhstan, an authoritarian country where gatherings must receive prior authorization from the authorities.

It was impossible on Wednesday to have a complete vision of the situation in the country, journalists and witnesses could no longer be reached by internet or by phone.

The web-monitoring group NetBlocks reported on Twitter about a “nationwide internet shutdown, (…) likely to severely limit coverage of escalating anti-government protests.”

AFP correspondents were unreachable on Wednesday evening. Previously, they reported that internet connections were intermittent and that Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp messaging apps were all down.

“Government resignation!” and “The old man outside!” chanted the demonstrators in reference to the former president.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, now 81, had ruled the country since 1989 and has been in the shadow of power since he left the presidency in 2019 while retaining a tailor-made status of “Leader of the nation” and installing a successor to his boot.

This ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin had also remained president of the powerful Security Council, but Tokayev announced on Wednesday that he would now exercise this function himself.

International powers call for dialogue

Kazakhstan, the largest of the five ex-Soviet countries in Central Asia, which includes a large minority considered to be ethnically Russian, is of crucial economic and geopolitical importance to Russia.

Moscow called on Wednesday to resolve the crisis through dialogue “and not through street riots and violation of laws”. The United States and the European Union, meanwhile, called on all parties to “hold back”.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki also criticized Russia’s “crazy claims” of alleged US responsibility in the riots in Kazakhstan. “This is absolutely false” and it falls “within the Russian disinformation strategy,” she said.

The anger began on Sunday after a rise in the prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG), in the city of Janaozen, in the west of the country, before spreading to the large regional city of Aktau, on the edges from the Caspian Sea, then to Almaty.

The government had initially tried to calm the protesters without success by conceding a reduction in the price of LNG. The rise in gas prices is perceived by the population as unfair in view of Kazakhstan’s vast oil and gas resources.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy accustomed in the past to double-digit growth rates, is suffering from falling oil prices and the economic crisis in Russia, which has led to the devaluation of the Kazakh tenge and a high inflation.

With AFP