Putin’s troops go in as Kazakh leader orders protesters shot

Bloomberg

Kazakhstan’s president said he’s ordered security forces to shoot protesters “without warning” as he declared victory with Russia’s help in crushing unrest sweeping the central Asian nation.
“Those who don’t surrender will be destroyed,” President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a televised address to the nation Friday. He rejected all calls for negotiations with the protesters, calling them “criminals, murderers,” and said operations are continuing against them.
The second intervention in as many years to shore up the embattled leader of a neighboring state represents another decisive display of power by Russian President Vladimir Putin as he prepares for a crucial showdown with the West next week over NATO expansion. Chinese President Xi Jinping backed the crackdown against what he called an attempted “color revolution” in Kazakhstan in a message to Tokayev, while the US and the European Union appealed for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
Russian paratroopers joined operations to retake Almaty’s airport, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, which said 75 aircraft flew its forces to Kazakhstan after Tokayev appealed for aid. Russia placed an officer who led military operations in Syria and Ukraine in charge of the deployment in Kazakhstan by troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Dozens of people have already been killed and hundreds wounded in Tokayev’s response to the most serious challenge facing Kazakhstan’s leadership since independence in 1991. The death toll seemed likely to climb with videos on social media showing troops firing automatic weapons in Almaty, the largest city, where the president claimed 20,000 “bandits” had attacked government buildings.
Yields on Kazakh dollar bonds due in 2045 fell for a second day after surging more than 30 basis points on Wednesday, driving the biggest loss for the security since March 2020.
Tokayev said the CSTO troops would remain in Kazakhstan for only a short time after he took the unprecedented step of asking the bloc to intervene to help put down the disturbances that he blamed on unspecified outside forces. The alliance dominated by Russia also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The intervention in Kazakhstan comes after Putin backed Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on popular protests, which drew sanctions from the U.S. and its allies following disputed 2020 elections.
The Kremlin will hold high-stakes security talks beginning Sunday with the US and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.