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Protesters set fire to the city administration building in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, on January 5

"Citizens have the right to make public demands to local and central authorities, but this must be done in accordance with the law."

"Demonstrators must be responsible and ready for dialogue."

"[A commission will] find a mutually acceptable solution to the problem that has arisen in the interests of stability."

"Bandit elements [had beaten police and robbed stores. The unrest had become] a question of the safety of our citizens. [I will] act as toughly as possible." 

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

 

"This is a government that is highly detached from the reality of what happens on the ground. It's a country where there are no institutions through which to protest; the only route is on the streets."

"[Authorities have announced many different plans to improve life and crack down on corruption but they are never implemented], People have been told things will get better but wealth is siphoned off."

Paul Stronski, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace  

 

"Having made concessions to the main original demand to lower fuel prices, the government is now struggling to reassert control through force."

"The protests are no longer mainly economic in nature but now overtly political."

Zachary Witlin, Eurasia Group

Russia and Belarus have sent troops into Kazakhstan to try to quell violent protests over inflation and rising gas prices.   CBC

 Russian paratroopers were dispatched into Kazakhstan a day ago as ostensible peacekeepers to give assistance to the embattled Kazakhstan government in the face of an uprising that began as a protest and escalated via the usual brutal military response from autocratic governments, into violent riots. What began as a protest after the new year saw a rise in the price of subsidized gas in an energy-rich country where profits have failed to trickle down to the population, became an exercise in an aggrieved public finding the cost of living beyond their means.

Deadly violence on the part of the protesters and that of the responding security troops has resulted in the deaths of dozens of people. Both rioters in the main city Almaty, and security force members as well. Two members of the security forces were discovered to have been decapitated. The city mayor's office and a presidential residence in Almaty were set ablaze in a fiery rebuke to authorities. The airport which had been seized by protesters, by Thursday afternoon was back in control of the military.

The city landscape is scattered with burnt-out vehicles, symbolic of the rage of citizens who will not be docile any longer in the face of hard living, a future that appears little better, and resentment against corruption carried out at the highest levels of government.The long-ruling leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, now 81 and retired has been cast as the major villain in the piece. His successor Kassym-Jomart Tokayev cast blame for the riots on foreign-trained terrorists, claiming they seized buildings and weapons.

Troops are seen Thursday at the main square of Almaty, where hundreds of people have been protesting against the government. (Mariya Gordeyeva/Reuters)

"It is an undermining of the integrity of the state and, most importantly, it is an attack on our citizens who are asking me ... to help them urgently", said President Tokayev. And feeling completely embattled, he called in Russian forces in recognition of the Moscow-led military alliance of ex-Soviet states. Moscow spoke of the joint enterprise as a "counter-terrorist operation", naming the uprising a foreign-inspired effort to violently undermine the security of Kazakhstan.

Armoured personnel carriers and troops entered the main square of Almaty, with gunshots heard as troops approached the Thursday crowd. Social media airing videos showed troops patrolling the city overnight, firing weapons, while wide-spread looting was taking place. Masked protesters, some equipped with shields and batons taken from police, marched through tear-gassed streets with the sound of detonations behind them.

Because the internet is now shut down countrywide, the full extent of the violence is difficult to validate.Troops sent from units in Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, along with those of Russia, all members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization led by Russia, were engaged to intervene. Protesters storming and torching public buildings in Almaty and other cities chanted slogans against their former ruler Nazarbayev. At one point attempting to pull down a bronze statue, but failing.

The current President Tokayev initially reacted to the unrest by dismissing the cabinet, reversing the New Year's Eve fuel price rise and attempting to distance himself from the policies and predatory corruption of his predecessor. The crowds of angry citizens took little notice; as far as they were concerned President Tokayev was simply an extension of the reign of President Nazarbayev, accused of amassing vast wealth at the expense of the Kazakh people.

Eventually matters will settle down, just as the protests of Belarus did with the intervention of Russia. All of these events play directly into the Kremlin's strategy of deploying rapid forces to safeguard its sphere of influence within the former Soviet Union in a patient bid to influence the former satellites to the reasoning they were better off under the protective arms of Russia, their benefactor, which had intervened to halt conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia -- which is even now massing troops on the border with Ukraine.

Protesters rally in Almaty on January 5.