Violent clashes broke out between protestors and security forces in Kazakhstan’s largest city of Almaty early on January 6. City police said that more than 20 “rioters” had been “eliminated,” according to Russian news agency Interfax.

A day after the army was called in to quell increasingly volatile unrest, witnesses said they saw armored vehicles and dozens of troops moving on Almaty’s main square. Gunshot sounds were also reported.

Middle East carriers flydubai and Air Arabia announced on January 6 that they were suspending flights to Kazakhstan after demonstrators took over the Almaty airport. Kazakhstan’s National Bank has temporarily suspended all financial institutions and the internet is largely down across the country as the unrest continued for a third consecutive day.

The demonstrations in Almaty and the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan began in response to a new law that came into effect on January 1. The law ended price controls for fuel, sending the cost of liquefied petroleum gas skyrocketing. This gas is used to power many vehicles, as it has been kept cheaper than gasoline.

A government announcement that the price would be fixed at a lower level did not slow protesters who say they are unhappy with corruption and the cost of living. Protesters took over government buildings and reportedly stormed the airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after demonstrations against a fuel price rise spread quickly across the country.

Kazakh media outlets cited the interior ministry as saying 317 police and national guard servicemen have been injured and eight killed. There have been no reliable estimates of civilian casualties.

The government of Prime Minister Askar Mamin has resigned, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared a state of emergency in Almaty. Tokayev called the demonstrators “terrorist gangs” who were “undermining of the integrity of the state.”

The president has also appealed to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-based alliance of six former Soviet countries, for aid in clamping down on protests. The CSTO later confirmed that it had sent an unspecificed number of personnel to Kazakhstan. ‘Peacekeeping forces’ from a Russia-led military alliance will be sent to help the country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, regain control.

Initially sparked by anger at a fuel price rise, the protests have quickly spread to take in wider opposition to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who retained significant power despite quitting in 2019 after a nearly three-decade rule.

Nazarbayev, 81, has been widely seen as the main political force in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital which bears his name. His family is believed to control much of the economy, the largest in Central Asia. He has not been seen or heard from since the protests began.

The Central Asian nation’s reputation for stability under Nazarbayev helped attract hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment in its oil and metals industries.

But a younger generation is demanding the liberalisation seen in other former satellite states of the Soviet Union. The protests are the worst in Kazakhstan – a country five times the size of France with a population of nearly 19 million people – in over a decade.

Apparently seeking to appease public ire, Tokayev sacked Nazarbayev as head of the powerful Security Council on Wednesday, and took it over himself. He also appointed a new head of the State Security Committee, successor to the Soviet-era KGB, and removed Nazarbayev’s nephew from the No. 2 position on the committee.

By Astrid Zhang Lehan

 

Tokayev’s Cabinet also resigned and said there will be a tough response to the protests.