MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — Authorities stated Thursday that security forces killed dozens of protestors and 12 police officers during extremely violent demonstrations in Kazakhstan, which saw government buildings assaulted and set ablaze. In mounting turmoil in the Central Asian nation, one police officer was found beheaded, posing a significant challenge to authoritarian leadership.
Despite the authorities’ harsh response, demonstrators took to the streets in Almaty, the country’s largest city, a day after bursting into the presidential mansion and the mayor’s office. Russian forces were on their way, and police were out in force, including in the capital of Nur-Sultan, which was allegedly quiet.
Police fired heavily on a street near Republic Square, where demonstrators had congregated, according to video from the Russian news agency Tass, though they were not seen in the film. Late Thursday, Tass reported that protestors had been pushed out of the square, but that sporadic gunfire continued in the neighbourhood.
Shots were fired as police surrounded a gathering of roughly 200 protestors in the city, according to Russia’s Sputnik news agency.
“Dozens of assailants were exterminated” during the turmoil on Wednesday, police spokesperson Saltanat Azirbek said official television channel Khabar-24, using a word commonly used to denote the killing of persons suspected of being extremists by law authorities. According to local officials reported by the channel, 12 police officers were killed and 353 were injured. 2,000 people have been arrested, according to the Interior Ministry.
Thousands of people have flocked to the streets in recent days, some reportedly carrying clubs and shields, in the country’s worst protests since it gained independence from the Soviet Union three decades ago. Although the protests began over a near-doubling of prices for a type of motor gasoline, their size and rapid spread imply they are representative of broader discontent in the country, which has been ruled by the same party since independence.
The government announced a 180-day price restriction on automobile gasoline and a freeze on utility rate increases on Thursday, in a bid to address the economic difficulties that sparked the protests, though it was unclear what, if any, impact the measures would have.
The president has wavered between attempts to appease the demonstrators, such as accepting his government’s resignation, and threats of punitive measures to calm the disturbance, which he blames on “terrorist bands.”
Concerns that a bigger crackdown could be on the way rose after he requested assistance from a Russian-led military alliance. Severe outages of internet and cellular service also caused anxiety, making it difficult — if not impossible — for word of what was going on inside Kazakhstan to reach the outside world.
Almaty and another city’s airports have also been closed.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance, announced early Thursday that it will send peacekeepers to Kazakhstan at Tokayev’s request.
The operation is the CSTO’s first military intervention, indicating that Kazakhstan’s neighbours, particularly Russia, are worried about the unrest spreading.
Russia and Kazakhstan have a 7600-kilometer (4700-mile) border, part of which runs through wide steppes. The Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia’s manned space launch site, is located in Kazakhstan.
The force’s size and responsibilities have yet to be determined. According to the CSTO, which also comprises Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, Russia has already begun sending military. However, Erbol Sutanbaev, the presidential spokesman for Kyrgyzstan, said the country’s force must be approved by parliament and that the army will not engage in demonstrations.
It was unclear whether any Russian military had arrived in Kazakhstan at the time.
The turmoil was raising concern in other places as well. According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with his Kazakh counterpart, Mukhtar Tileuberdi, and “reiterated the US’ full support for Kazakhstan’s constitutional institutions and media freedom and advocated for a peaceful, rights-respecting resolution to the crisis.”
France denounced the violence and called on all parties involved, including the CSTO, to “de-escalate and take responsibility.”
China is likely to be concerned as well. Kazakhstan shares a 1,800-kilometer (1,000-mile) border with China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing has undertaken a full-scale drive to suppress separatist aspirations among Muslim minority groups with cultural, religious, and linguistic ties to Central Asian peoples.
In accordance with Beijing’s rigorous official non-interventionist policy, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin appeared to deny any prospect of China being engaged in the present issue at a regular briefing on Thursday.
“What is happening in Kazakhstan is a domestic matter,” he said, “and we believe the Kazakh authorities can correctly resolve the problem.”
Tokayev has declared a two-week state of emergency across the country, which includes an overnight curfew and the prohibition of religious services. This is a setback for Kazakhstan’s large Orthodox Christian community, which celebrates Christmas on Friday.
Kazakhstan is by far the largest and wealthiest of the five Central Asian republics that acquired independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, encompassing a region the size of Western Europe and resting atop massive quantities of oil, natural gas, uranium, and precious metals.
It shares a border with China in addition to its lengthy border with Russia, and its oil and mineral resources make it strategically and economically vital.
Despite Kazakhstan’s natural resources and a robust middle class, financial hardship is pervasive, and dissatisfaction with inadequate living conditions is widespread in some areas. Many Kazakhs are also irritated by the ruling party’s domination in parliament, where it controls more than 80% of the seats.
The protesters don’t appear to have a clear leader or set of demands. Much of the current outrage has been directed towards Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s first president, who continues to retain immense power despite his resignation in 2019. Protesters chanted “Shal ket!” (“Old man go”), an apparent reference to Kazakhstan’s former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose administration was characterised by a moderate personality cult.
Prices for the fuel known as liquefied petroleum gas nearly doubled at the start of the year as the government stepped away from price controls as part of its efforts to transition to a market economy.
The government imposed a price restriction for LPG on Thursday of 75 tenge (17 cents) per litre; the average price at the start of the year was around 120 tenge (27 cents).