President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed to the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) with a request to help resolve the situation in the republic. The head of state announced this during a meeting of the Security Council, which was broadcast by 24 Khabar.
Tokayev called the protesters terrorists. According to him, these people undermine the integrity of Kazakhstan and attack the citizens of the country.
“Terrorist gangs are essentially international. They have undergone serious training abroad, and their attack on Kazakhstan can and should be viewed as an act of aggression. In this regard, relying on the Collective Security Treaty, today I addressed the heads of the CSTO states [с просьбой] to assist Kazakhstan in overcoming this terrorist threat, ”the President said.
Earlier today, Tokayev announced that he had replaced the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, as chairman of the country’s Security Council. Also, the head of state introduced a state of emergency throughout the republic and accepted the resignation of the government.
Today, the office of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that he spoke on the phone first with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then with Tokayev. Prior to this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the government of Kazakhstan would be able to independently cope with internal problems.
Protests in Kazakhstan began after the New Year against the backdrop of rising gas prices for cars to 120 tenge. After that, the government announced a reduction in the cost of the energy carrier to 50 tenge, but this did not stop the mass demonstrations.
As the first vice-president of the Center for Political Technologies, HSE professor Alexei Makarkin explained to Vedomosti, the protests began for socio-economic and political reasons. According to the expert, the citizens of Kazakhstan are unhappy with the rise in prices, property inequality, tensions due to the severe consequences of the pandemic, as well as the fact that the first president of the republic, Nursultan Nazarbayev, having left his post and transferred most of the power functions to Tokayev, did not completely retire from politics and retains significant influence. and power levers.
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