ALMATY.- Russian troops took control of key strategic positions in Kazakhstan, with a fully operational contingent after being called to the rescue by the Kazakh government amid a wave of protests and repression that left 164 dead.
The Russian contingent was deployed among other sites in the vicinity of Almaty, the most populous city in Kazakhstan, axis of the violence that was unleashed in this former Soviet republic from a series of demonstrations for the price of gas.
The arrival of the Russians, who traveled at the request of the government of Kazakhstan, was a confirmation of the influence that Moscow maintains in this immense former Soviet republic in Central Asia, 30 years after the fall of the USSR.
“The Russian peacekeeping units of the Collective Security Treaty Organization are conducting maneuvers at the Almaty airport to train emergency prevention” , explained the Russian Defense Ministry after the landing.
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The Kremlin did not specify figures for the deployment, but said that they will continue with the troop transfer flights to Almaty and confirmed that they took positions in the vicinity of the country’s most important infrastructures.
In this sense, the Russian ambassador to Kazakhstan, Alexei Borodavkin, warned in statements to the TASS news agency that “whoever tries to bite us or our friends will lose teeth.”
Borodavkin denounced a “tragedy” in a “friend, even brother” country. “Some organized and planned militias have tried to undermine the internal political stability of Kazakhstan and in the long term to destabilize the southern border of our country,” he said.
The riots in Kazakhstan caused 164 deaths and some 2,000 wounded, according to the latest official data , while the authorities say they have arrested almost 6,000 people linked to these bloody riots that shook the largest country in the region throughout the week.
Refusing any dialogue with the protesters, the president, Kassym Jomart Tokayevm had authorized on Friday the security forces to “shoot to kill.”
More than 100 of these deaths were reported in Almaty, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. Until now, official sources have confirmed the death of 26 protesters (“armed criminals”, according to the government’s name), as well as 16 members of the security forces.
In total, some 5,800 people they were detained, “among whom there are many foreigners,” the Kazakh presidency said in a statement, without providing further details. “The situation stabilized throughout the country,” despite the fact that the security forces continue to carry out “cleaning” operations, the government added, after a crisis meeting called by President Tokayev.
Kazakhstan, a country with 19 million inhabitants, rich in hydrocarbons, was rocked by unprecedented riots since its independence in 1989.
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The protest began last Sunday in the interior of the country due to the increase in gas prices, and the cost of living in general, to spread to large cities, including Almaty, where riots and the police broke out fired real bullets at the protesters.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of the Interior, quoted by the local press, the material damage was estimated at about 200 million dollars. Always according to the government, more than 100 companies and banks were looted and some 400 vehicles destroyed in the incidents of the week.
On Saturday, the former director of services was arrested intelligence officer, Karim Massimov, the first important figure arrested, on suspicion of “high treason.” The local airport will remain closed “until the situation stabilizes,” the authorities indicated.
In addition to the increase in the cost of living, the figure of former president Nursultán Nazarbayev, who ruled with an iron fist from 1989 to 2019, he is at the heart of the protesters’ anger.
In the traditional Sunday prayer of the Angelus, in the Plaza de San Peter, Pope Francis called for “dialogue” in this country, praying for “the dead and their families.”
The Kazakh crisis also caused more tensions between Russia and the United States, in a context of difficult relations between both powers.
Agencies AFP, DPA and Reuters
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