President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko spoke on the phone with the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the interlocutors discussed the situation in the country, Belta news agency reported. The talks marked the first appearance of Nazarbayev in public space since the beginning of the riots in Kazakhstan and the transition of the chair of the country’s Security Council to the current president, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev.
Earlier, Orda.kz reported, citing an unnamed source, that Nursultan Nazarbayev had left the country. According to the newspaper, his daughters also left the country with their families. There has been no official confirmation of the information yet.
Earlier, on January 5, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev accepted the resignation of the government and replaced a number of top leaders of the security forces, including the head of the National Security Committee and his first deputy, Nazarbayev’s nephew Abish Samat Satybaldyuly. Tokayev also headed the republic’s Security Council, which until then had been unchanged by his predecessor.
Mass protests began in Kazakhstan in the first days of the new year due to a two-fold increase in the price of liquefied gas. In addition to economic demonstrators, they soon began to put forward political demands, including advocating for Nazarbayev’s withdrawal from politics.
Since January 4, demonstrators have clashed with the police in the largest city of the republic, Almaty. A state of emergency was introduced throughout the country, and the CSTO (which, in addition to Kazakhstan, includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) decided to send a peacekeeping contingent to Kazakhstan to stabilize the situation.
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