Rome, January 6, 2022 – Neither the threat of a “hard” reaction, nor the promises to lower the prices of basic necessities have convinced the demonstrators who have taken to the streets for days in Kazakhstan to put an end to their unprecedented protests. The carrot and stick exhibited by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev did not prevent the demonstrations from spreading to several cities and from thousands of people storming the town hall and presidential residence in Almaty, the economic heart of the country, and arriving in evening to attack the city airport.
Dead and wounded
According to the media, citing the Ministry of the Interior, 8 officers were killed in violence e 317 were injured. Faced with the worsening of the crisis, Tokayev asked Russia and the other member countries of the CSTO, an alliance of six former Soviet countries led by Moscow, to intervene to crush the protests, and the request was accepted in the evening: the Armenian premier Nikol Pashinyan, president of the alliance, explained that they will be sent “forces of collective peace ” for a “limited time to stabilize and normalize the situation in the country” caused by “external interference”.
Hydrocarbons
The crisis suddenly calls into question the image of stability of this former Soviet Republic rich in hydrocarbons and governed by an authoritarian regime which in the three decades following the end of the USSR attracted enormous investments in the energy sector from the main world oil companies. The protests, triggered by the doubling of the price of LPG following the cancellation of the limits imposed by the government, they are now directed against the entire establishment of a system founded and guided for three decades byex presidente Nursultan Nazarbayev, who resigned in 2019 to hand over to Tokayev. A statue of him, reports the Russian agency Tass, was demolished in the city of Taldykorgan, in the south-east of the country. Tokayev was forced to proclaim a state of emergency throughout the country, after the measure had been decided the day before in Almaty and in Mangistau, the main oil province overlooking the Caspian Sea, in the west of the country.
The revolt
It was from here that the first protests started on Sunday, which then spread like wildfire. At first the president tried to calm the square by dissolving the government led by Prime Minister Askar Mamin and giving the order to restore the limits not only to price of LPG, but also on petrol, he diesel and other “socially important” genres. But neither this nor the tear gas and stun bombs employed by riot police departments managed to stop the thousands of demonstrators. So much so that late in the evening, in a dramatic televised speech to the nation, Tokayev went so far as to ask for theMoscow military intervention and the other member countries of the CSTO. The country, the president said, is under attack by terrorist groups trained abroad. Some “terrorists”, he added, also penetrated into Almaty airport, taking possession of five planes, one of which was foreign. Tokayev also assumed the powers of head of the National Security Council, a position that had been held by 81-year-old Nazarbayev following his resignation three years ago.
Stating that among the demonstrators there are “bandits” who attacked the security forces and killed some agents, the president warned that he is ready to “act in the most firm manner possible. “The police said they are also there over 500 civilian injuries, presented as victims of attacks by “extremists and radicals”, and reported assaults on shops and offices.
Actually it’s impossible independently ascertain what it is the balance of violence, also due to an almost general blocking of the Internet and the mobile phone network. The Russia, a crucial partner of Kazakhstan, was the first to react, with a note from the Foreign Ministry calling for “a peaceful solution to all problems through dialogue “, while the Kremlin warns other countries against interfering in internal Kazakh events. An apparently direct reference to the US, which reacted harshly by talking about” absolutely false accusations “and asking the authorities for” moderation ” While the EU has shown itself neutral by inviting all “parties to act responsibly”.
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