Government says situation in Kazakhstan has ‘stable’

Officials from Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that the situation in the Central Asian country was “stable” and that all government buildings had been secured. Reuters report.

Based on washington articles, the government is also trying to blame attacks on foreign terrorist groups and push back against what it calls “the false impression that the Kazakh government has targeted peaceful protesters”. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told soldiers to “shoot to kill without warning” in a televised address on Friday.

In a week of unrest started by a rise in the price of liquefied petroleum gas, protesters burned the country’s presidential palace and stormed into its largest airport, still closed. At least 26 protesters and 18 law enforcement officers were killed, and more than 5,000 people were arrested.

Kazakhstan is still in a state of internet blackout.

The authorities also announced that some “strategic facilities have been transferred under the protection of the United States’ unified peacekeeping force.” [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member states, “a predominantly Russian military contingent.

Observer Warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use the unrest in Kazakhstan as an opportunity to expand Russia’s power over the former Soviet republic. “I think a lesson in recent history is that once the Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes difficult to get them to leave,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Kazakh government announced saturday that Karim Massimov, two-time former prime minister and until recently head of the country’s counterintelligence service, was arrested and charged with treason.

Massimov is seen as a close ally of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the authoritarian leader who ruled Kazakhstan from independence in 1991 to 2019 and remained influential behind the scenes even after stepping down. Tokayev, who came to power as Nazarbayev’s chosen successor, removed Nazarbayev from his position as chairman of the Kazakhstan Security Council on Wednesday.