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Kazakh President Kassyim Jomart Tokayev confirmed that the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will begin to withdraw its soldiers from this Thursday, January 13. In addition, he announced a package of measures to quell protests in Kazakhstan, which began a week ago in response to discontent with economic and political elites and corruption. So far, at least 160 people have died and nearly 10,000 have been arrested.
This Tuesday, January 11, Kassyim Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan, announced that the peacekeeping troops of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will begin to withdraw from Thursday.
In a videoconference held from the Akorda presidential palace, Tokáyev assured that “the main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has concluded successfully”, so that “in two days the gradual withdrawal of the units will begin.” of Kazakhstan affirmed that the process “will not last more than ten days”.
For the president, an “attempted coup” by insurgents from “mostly from Central Asia, Afghanistan and also from the Middle East” has been avoided.
In fact, Tokayev assured that if it were not for the CSTO, the Government could have lost “completely control over Almatí (…), the main focus of the protests and the largest city and financial center in the country.”
The president went to the CSTO on January 5 to suppress the protests in the country that began on the 2nd of that same month. The organization, led by Russia and made up of countries such as Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, among others, sent 2,030 soldiers to Kazakhstan, most of them Russians.
The demonstrations were initially sparked by the rise in the price of liquefied gas. However, they also had to do with discontent with economic and political elites and corruption.
The protests have left at least 160 fatalities. In addition, some 10,000 people have been arrested.
Meanwhile, the Organization of Turkish States and Hungary condemned the “violence and vandalism” in Kazakhstan and expressed their unconditional support against “terrorists, radicals, extremists and criminals”.
Tokayev offers solutions to problems
The president also promised to implement a series of measures to reverse citizen disagreement.
The protests highlighted the need to upgrade the security forces in Kazakhstan. In effect, the president promised to strengthen the National Guard, increase special units and offer better wages to workers.
On January 5, Tokayev showed a heavy hand with the removal of Karim Masimov, then head of the National Security Committee (NSC), who was subsequently arrested for his possible involvement in “high treason.” The president appointed a new government headed by career official Alikhan Smailov.
Tokayev also criticized that the benefits of the country, rich in natural resources such as oil, gas and uranium, do not reach the population. He complained that the wealth went directly to people like former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and associates.
Indeed, Nazarbayev, who served as Head of the Security Council, was forced to resign from his post on the same day that Masimov was removed from office.
The Kazakh president also called for the creation of a public social fund to solve “real problems in the fields of health, education and social aid,” among others.
In September it will present a “new package of political reforms in coordination with society and experts”, since “the time has come for the transformation of relations between the State and society (…) We need a new format of social contract “said the president.
With EFE and Reuters
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