Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Monday that the sending of troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to Kazakhstan is a warning to participants in future protests in their own country. “The actions taken by the CSTO have clearly shown that we will not allow to destabilize the situation in our home and that we will not allow that scenario called the color revolution to occur,” said the president during a videoconference with the leaders of that military alliance. The presence of the 2,500 foreign soldiers could be brief, according to the Kazakh president, Kasim-Yomart Tokáyev, who assured that the situation is already under control.
The CSTO is made up of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The Russian president has highlighted “the very high interaction and the willingness” of his partners to intervene urgently after Tokayev requested their support last Wednesday. The protests, sparked by the sudden rise in the cost of the liquefied petroleum gas used there in many cars, quickly spread across the country and turned into a revolt against the regime. When Tokáyev called for help, there were already dozens of dead and some Administration buildings had burned down.
More than a hundred people have lost their lives since the protests began. The Jabar 24 channel published on Sunday that the Ministry of Health has registered 164 deaths. For its part, the Kazakh Ministry of the Interior reduced the number of members of the security forces killed during the demonstrations from 18 to 16 on the same day. In addition, 7,939 people have been arrested, according to official data this Monday.
“This is the result of the great trust that we have developed between us over the years of working together,” Putin added. The Russian president has been inclined to reinforce the mechanisms of the CSTO, an organization that has made its first intervention since its creation in 1992. “We need to think about improving the procedures for making decisions about the use of joint forces. The measures were adopted soon, but they must be uniform, and this would improve the quality of our work ”, stressed the Russian president.
Tokáyev activated the fourth article of the CSTO, which provides for the support of the allies in the event of external aggression against some of its members. The president of Kazakhstan has insisted in recent days that coordinated gangs “from abroad” with thousands of “terrorists” participated in the protests, many from the Middle East, according to his version.
However, the situation in Central Asia is still far from calm for the Kremlin. The President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, has warned his partners during his speech of the growing presence of jihadists in border areas with Afghanistan. “There are more than 40 terrorist camps and training centers in the northeastern provinces of Afghanistan that border the southern borders of the CSTO. Its forces have more than 6,000 combatants, ”said the Tajik leader.
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Moscow has backed the Taliban internationally since they took over Kabul last August. The new Afghan government promised that there would be no movements of extremists towards its partners in Central Asia, but the president of Tajikistan has warned on Monday that there are movements of the Islamic State (ISIS), Al Qaeda, along its borders. and other terrorist organizations.
“So far the CSTO’s decision to create a single list of recognized terrorist organizations has not been implemented. Furthermore, we are particularly concerned that an interstate plan to strengthen the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan has not been adopted, ”Rahmon told his partners. After the videoconference, the Kremlin has assured in a statement that there will be “meetings at all levels” to address this issue.
For his part, the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has affirmed that what happened in Kazakhstan this week is similar to what happened in his country after the 2020 elections, when the demonstrations against electoral fraud were harshly repressed. “An analysis of the events in Kazakhstan shows the presence of an external factor, a recognizable scenario. There is no need to go far to make analogies: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine or Afghanistan. Not long ago, Belarus experienced a similar combined attack, ”Lukashenko said.
However, the Belarusian president has also hinted that the protests in Kazakhstan have been promoted from within. “Behind all the external factors, one must see the internal ones. This is a lesson we learned in Belarus. If we do not understand this, if we only blame the external factor, these events can happen again, ”said Lukashenko.
It is precisely this crisis that has caused an earthquake in the upper echelons of Kazakhstan. The hitherto head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence, Karim Masimov, has been arrested on charges of committing high treason to the state, and Tokayev has assumed control of the Security Council (responsible for all the country’s security forces) after relieving the charge to former President Nursultán Nazarbayev.
The historic president, who led the country’s reins for three decades until delegating his duties to his dolphin Tokáyev in 2019, has remained silent throughout the crisis. While the videoconference was taking place, Russian press agencies have asked Putin’s spokesman if the Russian leader has spoken with Nazarbayev. “Coordination has required constant contact with President Tokayev,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov replied, insisting that he clarify whether Putin and Nazarbayev had maintained any kind of communication. “I do not have that information,” he added.
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