Protests in Kazakhstan continue: 8 people have already been arrested, Putin saw there 'technologies of the Ukrainian Maidan'

7939 people have already been detained for participation in the unrest in Kazakhstan, the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on the morning of January 10. The department says that “terrorist, extremist and criminal groups took advantage of the situation to escalate tensions and violence,” it reports BBC.

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On January 9, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 5969 detained participants in the riots, that is, over the course of a day, the number of detainees increased by almost two thousand.

On January 10, an extraordinary online summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization takes place, which, in addition to Kazakhstan, includes Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Belarus. All these countries sent their military personnel to Kazakhstan as part of the peacekeeping contingent to participate in the counter-terrorist operation.

At the summit, Kazakh President Kasim-Zhomart Tokayev said that during the riots in the country they tried to carry out a coup, and that some "foreign fighters" took part in the protests in the country, but other terrorists of "known origin" took their bodies from morgues and from the streets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin added that the organizers of the riots used elements of “Maidan technologies.”

Earlier, on January 8, it became known about the detention of Karim Massimov, the closest associate of ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who headed the National Security Committee before the riots. Massimov is suspected of high treason.

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On January 10, two high-ranking security officials were found dead in the country - the chief of police of the Zhambyl region, Major General Zhanat Suleimenov, and Colonel of the National Security Committee Azamat Ibraev.

According to local media reports, Suleimenov was found with a gunshot wound in his own office. He could have been threatened by a tribunal because of the cases of police going over to the side of the demonstrators.

On January 9, the country's Interior Ministry reported on Telegram that 164 had died in the protests. But then this message disappeared. Therefore, there is no data on the exact number of deaths.

January 10 is declared a day of national mourning in the country.

Tokayev about the attempted coup

At the extraordinary CSTO summit on January 10, President of Kazakhstan Kasim-Jomart Tokayev called the protests and unrest in Kazakhstan an attempt at a coup and assured that constitutional order in the country has now been restored, and in the near future Kazakhstan intends to provide global evidence of the preparation of “terrorist aggression” against the country.

According to Tokayev, participants in protests in the country tried to create “a zone of chaos followed by the seizure of power.”

“I speak with confidence about the direct participation of terrorists, including foreign fighters, in aggression against Kazakhstan,” he said.

The wave of unrest, he said, began “under the guise of spontaneous protests,” which led to an increase in gas prices. As Tokayev states, “it is now obvious that all these actions were coordinated from one center.”

According to the President of Kazakhstan, as a result of the riots, 16 security officials were killed and another 1300 were injured. More than 100 shopping centers have been robbed and about 500 police cars burned down in the country.

Tokayev also claims that rioters attacked morgues in order to take away the bodies of their associates.

Putin about the CSTO military: they will be “as long as needed”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during an extraordinary CSTO summit, called the events in Kazakhstan “an attack on the country.” According to him, those people who were outraged by gas prices and those who took up arms had different goals.

Putin noted that Kazakhstan actively used “elements of force and information support for protests inherent in Maidan technologies.”

According to the Russian President, “well-organized and clearly controlled groups of militants were used, in particular, terrorists who had apparently been trained in camps abroad.”

The CSTO forces, according to Putin, will remain in Kazakhstan “as long as necessary,” but upon completion of the mission, the entire contingent will be withdrawn from the country.

What's happening in Almaty

According to the Air Force correspondent in Almaty, Abdujalil Abdurasulov, it is still impossible to call the situation in the city normal: there are still problems with the Internet in the city, banks and ATMs did not work on January 9, local residents have to wait for hours to fill the tanks of their cars with 10 –15 liters of gasoline.

From time to time, single shots are heard in the city, however, this is probably how the military warns people not to gather in a group or approach the posts. At the same time, there were noticeably more people on the streets of Almaty, shops and some cafes began to open.

The protests began on January 2 in western Kazakhstan, in the Mangistau region, due to the rise in prices for liquefied gas. In this region, protests took place mostly in a peaceful manner. In a number of other regions, from January 4-5, protests escalated into clashes with the security forces and the seizure of state administrations, and in the former capital of the country, Almaty, in the south of the country, real street battles unfolded, which lasted until January 7.

President Tokayev calls the people who took to the streets of Kazakhstan “destructive forces,” conspirators and “international terrorist gangs.”

“If you look closely at the events that the authorities used to call “terrorist attacks,” you can see a much more complex picture associated with the struggle for power within the elites,” says Kate Mallinson, an expert at the British Royal Institute of International Affairs.

British business analyst Benjamin Godwin agrees with Mallinson's assessment. He notes that initially the protesters in different parts of Kazakhstan had different demands.

In the Mangistau region, where the protests began, people demanded a reduction in gas prices. Residents of the oil-bearing regions of the country demanded better working conditions.

In other cities, people spoke out in favor of changing the constitution of Kazakhstan. And many demonstrators simply advocated the need for change, they did not have clearly formulated requirements, because there were no leaders and no organization.

But by January 5, the situation had changed. Groups of armed people appeared in the streets.

By the evening of January 5, some cars appeared, from which people with machine guns were getting out. It became obvious that some organized groups and looters were operating in the streets. Some people started robbing banks. This is no longer a protest.
“Demonstrators who previously took to the streets with economic and political demands simply stayed home. They began to be afraid to go out,” Godwin notes.

“The armed groups that we saw on the streets of Almaty and other cities are not directly related to the protests. They are connected with the current struggle for power between the Nazarbayev family and Tokayev,” the expert believes.

At the same time, both Godwin and other experts believe that the figure voiced by Tokayev of 20 thousand bandits is most likely an exaggeration.
For comparison: according to CIA estimates, 20-30 thousand people is the number of all Islamic State militants at the time when the group controlled the maximum amount of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014.

At the same time, experts emphasize that Kazakhstan is not a center of religious extremism. Some citizens of the country in 2014-2018 joined the ranks of IS militants and went to Syria, but their number was small. Those who returned to Kazakhstan were brought to justice, many of them are in prison.

“The role of radical Islamists is extremely exaggerated. Kazakhstan is not yet a breeding ground for homegrown terrorists,” says analyst Mallinson.

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In the first half of the 2010s, radical Islamists in Kazakhstan conducted several sorties. But the groups of militants who entered into open confrontation with the authorities were small.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Kazakhstan gripped by massive protests due to higher prices for liquefied gas. A state of emergency was declared in the country, the government was dismissed.
• Protests in Kazakhstan are gaining momentum. Russia and other countries sent troops to the country due to the current situation. This happened within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
• At the Consulate General of Kazakhstan in Rally was held in New York: Diaspora supports protests at home.
• 22-year-old Israeli was killed in shelling during violent protests in the Kazakh city of Almaty.
• President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued a decree to the security forces "shoot without warning”To quell the violent protests that paralyzed the former Soviet republic and reportedly claimed dozens of lives.

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