Russian Troops Landed in Kazakhstan to Combat Unrest amid Fuel Price Hike
Russian-led forces fly in Kazakhstan as the country’s president requested Russian support to combat the violent crackdown on protests.
On Thursday, the latest violence erupted in the central city of Kazakhstan as Russian sent in paratroopers to combat nationwide unrest in one of the closest former Soviet allies of Moscow. Almaty police officials said they killed dozens of insurgents overnight into the early hours of Thursday morning.
Authorities said that about eighteen security member forces died, including two found beheaded. Police authorities arrested over two thousand people. Reuters journalists said that after a night of running street clashes between troops and protestors, the mayor’s office in the city and a presidential residence were blazing. Military personnel recouped the central airport control, as protestors seized it earlier.
Russian-led forces fly in Kazakhstan as the country’s president requested Russian support to combat the violent crackdown on anti-government protests. The number of overseas forces is reportedly 2500 soldiers. pic.twitter.com/WtJmzMsVAY
CNN reported explosions and gunfire as military vehicles and scores of soldiers advanced. The Russian deployment was a gamble by the Kremlin that swift military force could secure its interests in Kazakhstan by instantly putting down the worst violence in the thirty years of the country’s independence.
On Thursday, oil prices soared over one percent, and uranium also raised since the conflicts erupted. The officials shut down the internet all over the country, due to which bitcoin mining was disrupted in the country. Kazakhstan is one of the largest crypto miners’ countries globally, making it impossible to measure the extent of the unrest.
Attacks on Citizens
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that he called in the Moscow-led military alliance of former Soviet states. Tokayev blamed the violence on foreign-trained terrorists who had captured buildings and security forces’ weapons. Moscow said that it would consult with the uranium and oil-producing Central Asian country and allies on steps to support the counter-terrorist operation of the Kazakh and repeated the assertion of Tokayev that the unrest was foreign-inspired. However, neither Russia nor Kazakhstan provided evidence to support that.
Russian Troops Landed in Kazakhstan to Combat Unrest amid Fuel Price Hike Source: Web
The unrest, which started as protests against the fuel price rise, swelled on Wednesday when activists chanting slogans against Nazarbayev stormed and burned down public buildings in Almaty and other country cities. However, those moves failed to appease crowds who accused the family of Nazarbayev and allies of vast buildup wealth while the country of nineteen million remained poor.
