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President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev lifted the state of emergency in three regions of the country – Pavlodar, West Kazakhstan and North Kazakhstan regions. According to the decrees published on the official website of the president, the state of emergency is canceled from 7 am on January 13. On January 4, Tokayev introduced a state of emergency, first in the Mangistau region and Almaty, and later throughout the territory of Kazakhstan.
Also, according to Tokayev, on January 13 will begin the withdrawal of troops of the peacekeeping mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) from the country. The President of Kazakhstan assessed the mission as “very successful”.
“Tomorrow the organized withdrawal of the CSTO peacekeeping contingent will begin,” he said during a meeting of the operational headquarters in Almaty.
“The CSTO mission is assessed as very successful. Once again, I express my gratitude to my colleagues – the heads of state,” Tokayev added.
Protests in Kazakhstan began on January 2 after a sharp rise in prices for liquefied natural gas. People went to a rally in the oil town of Zhanaozen, a wave of discontent instantly spread to other cities: Almaty, Aktobe, Karaganda, Nur-Sultan, Shymkent, Kokshetau and Uralsk. Initially, the demand was one: to reduce gas prices. Local authorities ignored him, then the protesters began to demand the resignation of the government. In one of the cities, they blocked the streets and caught a drunken mayor at the wheel. When the gas price cut in the Mangistau region was announced, the protests had already gone so far that it did not calm, but only angered people.
The international organization Amnesty International appealed to the government of Kazakhstan with a demand to uncover information about civilian casualties during protests in the country.
The statement also said that the Kazakh authorities should immediately release the journalists and activists “who were arbitrarily detained for their coverage of the mass protests of the last week and a half, provide information on all arrests related to the protests, and ensure that the human rights of all detainees are respected.”
Human rights activists note that, according to official government figures, the number of people arrested since the start of the protests on January 2 has reached almost 10,000.
On January 5, there was an unexpected reshuffle in the leadership of Kazakhstan: President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that he was taking over as chairman of the Security Council, which was previously headed by Nursultan Nazarbayev. The latter retired. Throughout the protests, Nazarbayev did not make a single statement or appear in public or in the media. As of January 10, his location is unknown.
Some media reported that Nazarbayev may be in China, but Beijing refuted these assumptions.
“This is absolutely false information. We noticed that the press secretary of the former president of Kazakhstan stated that Nazarbayev is currently in the capital of the country, Nur-Sultan, ”- declared at the press office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.
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