MOSCOW (RIA Novosti): Kazakhstan has not yet requested assistance from the CSTO in connection with the mass protests, a source familiar with the situation told RIA Novosti.
“No, I haven’t asked yet,” he said.
“In principle, the CSTO charter allows the organization to be used to resolve internal unrest, but this is done on the basis of a decision of a sovereign state. In this case, we do not know anything about such a decision,” the agency’s interlocutor explained.
In the early days of 2022, residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in Mangistau Oblast, an oil-producing region in western Kazakhstan, protested against a two-fold increase in LPG prices. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev instructed to form a government commission to consider the situation. On January 4, she announced that she was ready to fulfill the main demand of the protesters and reduce gas prices.
However, the protests spread to other cities as well. In Alma-Ata, the largest city and the first capital of the country, on the evening of January 4 and on the night of January 5, protesters clashed with the security forces, the police used gas and stun grenades. Tokayev urged people to show prudence and not succumb to provocations from inside and outside. He noted that calls to attack civilian and military offices are illegal. According to him, “the power will not fall,” and the country “does not need a conflict, but mutual trust and dialogue.”
The President introduced a state of emergency in Mangistau and Almaty regions, as well as in Alma-Ata until January 19. It provides for a curfew from 7.00 to 23.00, a ban on mass events and strikes, a ban on the sale of weapons, ammunition and alcohol, the confiscation of weapons and ammunition from people, and increased security of especially important facilities. Entry and exit from these regions and Alma-Ata are restricted, document checks, inspections of people and vehicles are prescribed. On the morning of January 5, Tokayev dismissed the government and said that the Cabinet was especially guilty for allowing a protest situation.
OSCE calls on to end violence: OSCE Chairman Zbigniew Rau called for de-escalation of the situation with protests in Kazakhstan and the start of a dialogue.
“As the chairman of the OSCE, I closely follow the current events in Kazakhstan … I call for a de-escalation of the situation and the start of a dialogue in full compliance with OSCE commitments,” he wrote on Twitter.
The post Kazakhstan did not ask for help: CSTO appeared first on The Frontier Post.
