The foreign soldiers who arrived in Kazakhstan last week are leaving again. They have accomplished their mission to restore stability, President Tokayev said. The withdrawal will start in two days and must be completed in ten days.
Last week, violent unrest broke out in Kazakhstan. Protesters attacked government buildings and clashed with riot police. In doing so, 164 dead have fallen. The number of detainees has now risen to 10,000.
President Tokayev said it was an attempted coup involving Islamists trained abroad. He enlisted the help of the CSTO, a Russian-led military alliance of former Soviet countries. About 2000 soldiers were deployed to protect strategic locations such as airports.
Power struggle
According to analysts, there is also a power struggle within the elite. Tokaev is said to have enlisted the help of the CSTO because he did not trust his own security apparatus.
The head of the NSC intelligence service, Karim Masimov, was fired and arrested for high treason. Because he failed to identify the danger in time and because he did not intervene properly during the riots, Tokayev declared in parliament today.
These are images of the unrest last week:
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