Kazakhstan unrest: Government calls for Russian help
Russian-led military troops will be deployed to help "stabilise" Kazakhstan amid anti-government demonstrations. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as nationwide unrest escalates. The protests were first sparked by rising fuel prices, but have broadened to include other political grievances. President Tokayev claimed the unrest was the work of foreign-trained "terrorist gangs".
However, Kate Mallinson, an expert on Central Asia, said the protests are "symptomatic of very deep-seated and simmering anger and resentment at the failure of the Kazhak government to modernise their country and introduce reforms that impact people at all levels". The president has imposed a nationwide state of emergency that includes an overnight curfew and a ban on mass gatherings and has vowed a tough response to the protests.
In a televised speech in the early hours of Thursday, he said he had sought help from the CSTO - a military alliance made up of Russia and five ex-Soviet states to help stabilise the country. Later on Wednesday the CSTO's chairman, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, confirmed in a statement on Facebook that the alliance would send peacekeeping forces "for a limited period of time".
Getting a clear picture of what is happening in the central Asian nation is proving difficult. The interior ministry released figures of reported casualties among the security forces, but there were no equivalent reports of any injuries or deaths among protesters amid what monitoring groups have described as a "nation-scale internet blackout".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59880166
