Russia-led bloc sends troops to Kazakhstan amid protests

Bloomberg

Russia and its allies sent troops to help quell protests in Kazakhstan that posed the biggest threat to the central Asian country’s leadership since it gained independence in 1991.
Dozens of anti-government protesters were killed by security forces and hundreds wounded, authorities said Thursday, after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced an “anti-terrorist operation” to put down the demonstrations. He imposed a state of emergency nationwide and internet access was cut in much of the country. Thousands of protesters had taken to the streets around the country in recent days, seizing government buildings and killing at least a dozen law-enforcement officials after fuel-price rises unleashed a wave of popular anger over falling living standards.
Sending what Russia and the handful of other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization called “peacekeeping forces” was a dramatic move by the Kremlin-led bloc and the first time it intervened to shore up a longtime ally in the region in the face of public protests. There was no immediate word on the size of the deployment, which followed reports of Kazakh security forces surrendering to demonstrators and a late-night appeal from Tokayev.
Prices for uranium surged almost 8% amid the unrest in the world’s largest supplier of the nuclear fuel. Kazakh bonds and the tenge slipped. There was no sign of disruption to oil output, the central Asia’s country biggest export, however.
Kazakhstan’s central bank suspended operations of the nation’s banks and the stock exchange, according to spokesman Olzhas Ramazanov. For now, the halt is planned only for Thursday, he said. Tokayev ordered price controls on key fuels and banned exports of some farm products for 180 days to stem inflation, Interfax reported.
With the internet and other communications disrupted, it was difficult to get a clear picture of how successful the authorities’ overnight crackdown was in pushing back the demonstrators. Russia’s state-run Tass news agency published video of heavily armed troops in Almaty, the country’s former capital and largest city, firing automatic weapons.
Authorities had regained control of the airport there, but it and two others remained closed Thursday, state TV reported.
Neither the CSTO nor Tokayev’s government indicated what outside forces they blamed for the violence, which appeared to have started spontaneously.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the unrest was “an attempt inspired from outside to violently undermine the security and integrity of the state with the use of organized and trained armed units.” It didn’t identify the outside forces, but a senior legislator blamed terrorist groups from Afghanistan. He didn’t provide any evidence for his claim. The CSTO is dominated by Russia and also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.