The final part of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan is over, Telegram channel ОДКБ-CSTO reports.
The state of emergency and curfew restrictions have been lifted in the country. However, checkpoints are still operating in Almaty.
Protests in Kazakhstan broke out on January 2 in Zhanaozen, the so called city of oil workers, after the authorities doubled the price of liquefied gas. Initially, the protesters were only seeking a price cut, but later they put forward political demands, in particular, they insisted Nursultan Nazarbayev be removed from power. On January 6, the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan launched a pre-trial investigation under Article 175-1 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan (‘treason’).
On the night of January 6, Armenia’s Prime Minister and Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation decided to send ‘peacekeeping forces’ to Kazakhstan for ‘a limited period of time’ on the back of the appeal of Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia confirmed the involvement of their troops.
A day later, Tokayev gave a shoot-to-kill order to the military and police forces who were fighting protesters. According to him, the corresponding decision was taken in light of ‘the threat to national security and sovereignty caused by, inter alia, outside interference’. He failed to specify which body or country was interfering in the Kazakh protest.
Belarusian military men of the 103rd Detached Airborne Brigade of Vitsebsk arrived in Kazakhstan in the framework of the CSTO program at the request of Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. They were flown from the Machulishchy airfield near Minsk on Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft. According to the MoD, they were performing the task of protecting the military airfield and securing some critical facilities of the military infrastructure of Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh authorities stressed that the CSTO mission should be only temporary, but Russian officials and state media have repeatedly said that the contingent should remain there for an indefinite period of time, ‘until the situation is settled’.
On January 14, Belarusian servicemen belonging to CSTO peacekeeping forces returned to Belarus.
belsat.eu
