Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on Tuesday that the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will start pulling out its troops from Kazakhstan in two days. Tokayev noted that the troop withdrawal will take no more than 10 days.
“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” Tokayev said in a televised address to the parliament. “In two days, a phased withdrawal of the CSTO united peacekeeping contingent will begin. The process of withdrawing the contingent will take no more than 10 days,” he added.
The President said that the decision was made after order was largely restored by security forces following widespread and violent protests that rocked the country last week.
Protests erupted in Almaty, Nur Sultan and the Mangistau province on January 1 after the government lifted price caps on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), a fuel widely used by Kazakhs to power their vehicles, and doubled LPG prices. The demonstrations quickly boiled over into violent riots, in which protesters ransacked government buildings and offices, including the presidential residence and mayor’s office in Almaty.
Watch: #Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev says that a contingent of #Russia-led forces would begin leaving the troubled Central Asian country in two days, with the pullout to take no more than 10 days.https://t.co/gboy97KaJ5 pic.twitter.com/Wry2ndRJOU
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) January 11, 2022
Kazakh police claimed that protesters torched vehicles and looted shops. Security forces responded by firing stun grenades and tear gas. At least 164 people were killed in the violence, including police officers, according to authorities. Moreover, authorities have detained almost 10,000 people so far, restricted internet and other communication services and banned foreign journalists from entering the country. The Kazakh government resigned following the unprecedented violence and Tokayev declared a two-week long state of emergency.
Immediately following the outbreak of violence, Tokayev appealed to the CSTO, a military alliance of post-Soviet countries, to send military personnel to help quell the unrest. While the alliance approved the sending of “peacekeeping” troops, it was not clear how many soldiers were sent.
“When this decision [inviting troops] was being made, we could have completely lost control over Almaty, which was being torn apart by terrorists,” Tokayev claimed on Tuesday. “Had we lost Almaty, we would have lost the capital and the entire country,” he added.
Last week, Russia sent paratroopers to the violence-hit areas of Kazakhstan as part of the CSTO mission. It was not clear if the paratroopers joined forces with Kazakh troops to stop the rioting. However, not long after they arrived, Tokayev announced that order had been restored across the country.
According to reports, many Kazakhs have welcomed Russia’s support for Tokayev’s government and the CSTO intervention to bring stability to the country. Normalcy has more or less returned to the regions affected badly by the rioting, especially Almaty, where shops and malls have reopened and transportation services have resumed.