The federal government is stopping its arms exports there because of the serious unrest in the country.
(Photo: imago images / ITAR-TASS)
Almaty, Nur Sultan, Berlin, Moscow After serious unrest, the situation in Central Asian Kazakhstan remained unclear over the weekend. Nationwide, more than 4,400 people have now been arrested, the state television reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry of the authoritarian-led ex-Soviet republic.
There was initially no new official information on the fatalities the day after President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev issued an order to shoot. The authorities had previously spoken of more than 40 people killed – including security forces.
Tokayev ordered the police and army on Friday to shoot “without warning” at demonstrators whom he described as “terrorists” and “bandits”. It was feared that there could be many civilian deaths – especially in Almaty, a city of over a million people in southeastern Kazakhstan, which was badly shaken by the riots.
Because the authorities have switched off the Internet in Almaty and the cellular connection keeps breaking down, it was still hardly possible to get secure information from there. Photos show armed security forces leading protesters away. Gunshot noises can be heard on videos on social networks allegedly from Almaty. The so-called anti-terrorist operation continues, reported the state broadcaster Khabar 24.
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According to statements by Kazakhstan’s child rights officer Arushan Sain, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed while walking with his parents in Almaty. It was not clear who should have shot.
Heaviest riots for years
Kazakhstan, which borders Russia and China, has been experiencing the worst riots in years for days. In many places, displeasure at the rise in fuel prices at petrol stations turned into peaceful, but sometimes also violent, protests against the government. Tokayev declared a state of emergency and asked a Russian-led military alliance for help.
The 68-year-old ordered a national mourning for Monday to commemorate the victims. At the same time, he continued to rebuild the government. According to state media, he dismissed the deputy secretary of the influential Security Council, Asamat Abdymomunov, who had been appointed by his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev a few years ago. Tokayev had previously withdrawn Nazarbayev himself from the chairmanship of the body – and taken it over himself.
The 81-year-old Nazarbayev – Tokayev’s political foster father – was still considered the most powerful man in Kazakhstan after his resignation in 2019. Some experts argue that Tokayev is using the current crisis to gain more leverage.
The president recently announced that he had given police orders to kill during the protests.
(Photo: dpa)
The 68-year-old has already fired the entire government and replaced the management of the secret service with his own confidants. Ex-secret service chief Karim Massimow was arrested for high treason. The suppression of the unrest is increasingly taking the form of a “rigorous liberation of the incumbent president from the tutelage of his predecessor,” wrote the expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center, Alexander Baunov.
In view of the crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin also had a long phone call with his Kazakh counterpart on Saturday, according to the Kremlin. Putin supported Tokayev’s proposal to hold a video summit with the heads of state and government of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the coming days, a Kremlin statement said.
Tokayev had asked the military alliance, which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, for help. A total of around 2500 foreign soldiers were to be sent to the Central Asian ex-Soviet republic.
Federal government stops arms exports to the country
Because of the conflict, the federal government stops exports of armaments to the former Soviet republic. According to information from the German Press Agency, the necessary steps have been taken to prevent such goods from being exported to Kazakhstan.
Last year, 25 licenses for the export of armaments to Kazakhstan with a total value of around 2.2 million euros were granted. That is a comparatively low value – nevertheless, given the current situation, an export freeze is advisable.
More: What the unrest in Kazakhstan means for Russia, China and the USA