Russian soldiers in Kazakhstan: confirmation of the sending of the “peacekeepers” to Moscow, already underway, came from the Moscow defense minister. Airborne troops of the CSTO contingent, the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty signed thirty years ago by six former Soviet republics led by Moscow (in addition to Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation are Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) and entered into operation for the first time since its establishment. The Russian government has specified that the main tasks of the men of the CSTO will be the protection of state and military structures and assistance to the Kazakh law enforcement agencies to stabilize the situation and bring it back into law.
The situation in the country is still out of control: the official numbers pitted by the Kazakh interior minister report the killing of 26 demonstrators, defined as “armed criminals”, and over 3,000 arrests. 18 security forces were killed in the clashes and another 748 were injured. But this is only the tip of the iceberg: it is impossible to draw a precise picture of the chaos that continues to rage in the former Soviet republic: Almaty, the center of the unrest that broke out due to the increase in fuel prices but quickly turned into an open protest against the government, it’s a ghost town. The symbolic image of the real guerrilla warfare is that of the town hall, destroyed and blackened by the flames.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will address the nation again today in his third message in three days: Tokayev’s first appeal to the country during the riots was on January 5, the second on the night of January 6. “Over 20,000 armed terrorists are still looting and damaging homes and properties,” he said. “Whoever does not surrender will be annihilated.”