In the states of the former Soviet Union, the uprisings in Kazakhstan have raised concerns. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of a style uprising in Ukraine in 2014 at a video conference of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Putin said, according to the Russian state news agency Tass: “Well-organized and controlled groups of fighters have been deployed including those apparently trained in terrorist camps abroad. ”Putin said“ Maidan techniques ”had been used to aid the rioters and exchange information – similar to those that led to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government. Moscow will not tolerate any “color revolutions” in former Soviet states, said Putin. Russia accuses the West of being behind the “orange revolution” in Ukraine.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev took the same line and spoke of a “coup”. “Groups of armed fighters” had waited for the right moment and then “went into action,” said Tokayev at the CSTO conference. The goal was “the undermining of public order, the destruction of government institutions and the seizure of power”. The country has become a victim of organized “terrorist” forces, including “Islamists”, but also “petty criminals” and “rioters”, said Tokayev.
Apparently, there are concerns in several capitals that unrest could also break out in other countries. The nervousness can also be explained by the fact that, according to a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov, Moscow was “surprised by the extent of the violence of the outbreak” – an experience that the Russian secret service had in Ukraine in 2014. It was therefore important that the CSTO this time managed to deploy a quick and determined effort to crush the demonstrations, Putin said on Monday.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned on Monday that Uzbekistan could be the next country to be hit by unrest. “The lessons should be learned by everyone, especially Uzbekistan. If these lessons are not learned, according to our information, Uzbekistan is already in the sights of the terrorists, ”Lukashenko said on Monday at a meeting of the CSTO, according to the Tass. Both in Kazakhstan and in other post-Soviet republics of Central Asia there are “too many people who want to undermine the situation”. Afghanistan was only recently added to this list, said Lukashenko. The situation is also tense among the CSTO countries: on Monday the government of Kyrgyzstan protested against the arrest of Kyrgyz citizens during the unrest in Kazakhstan.
The situation on the Tajik-Afghan border is also becoming more complicated every day: There are over 6,000 fighters near the border, said the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, on Monday, according to Tass: “Overall, according to the Tajikist’s knowledge, there are Intelligence agencies over 40 camps and training centers for terrorists in the northeastern provinces of Afghanistan, where over 6,000 fighters are housed, ”said Rahmon. In the past week, over 11 Taliban fighters were killed and over 18 injured on part of the border. Rahmon demanded: “Therefore we have to build a safety belt around Afghanistan.”
The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, sees a connection with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan: The unrest in Kazakhstan last week was fueled by the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, which made it possible for “jihadists” to Attacking the constitutional order in Kazakhstan, Antonov told press representatives in Washington on Monday.
On Monday, the security authorities in Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) reported that the police and army had restored “constitutional order” in Kazakhstan with the help of 2,000 soldiers from the CSTO Alliance. Life largely returned to normal on Monday in the metropolis of Almaty. The internet, which had been cut for days, and the telephone lines worked again, according to AFP, and local public transport gradually resumed operations. Nationwide there was state mourning on Monday.
A total of 7,939 people were arrested, the Interior Ministry announced on its website on Monday. The balance of the dead is unclear, according to AFP. According to Tokayev, there were 16 dead and more than 1,600 injured among the security forces. The number of civilian deaths is “currently under review”. The president had given an order to shoot on Friday in the face of the unprecedented crisis. On Monday he stressed that his country’s security forces would “never shoot” peaceful demonstrators. Putin said the CSTO troops would only stay in the Central Asian country “for a limited period of time.”
Internationally, the crisis in Kazakhstan had raised concerns. In view of the violence in the country, the federal government had stopped all arms exports, and on Monday Berlin called on all those involved to “end the violence immediately”. A spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office also emphasized that the situation was “still confusing”. “But we are seeing certain signs of relaxation, at least in the area of the security situation,” she said. (with AFP)