Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kasim Zhomart Tokayev have discussed the situation in Kazakhstan following a violent protest in a “long” telephone conversation, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
Tokayev has provided Putin with “detailed” information about the situation in the country, saying it is “moving towards stabilization,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Tokajev also thanked the Moscow-controlled military alliance of the former USSR or the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB) and especially Russia for its help in suppressing the protests.
“The presidents exchanged views on measures to restore order in Kazakhstan,” the Kremlin said.
The leaders of the two countries have agreed to maintain constant contact and hold an ODKB video conference in the coming days.
Protests against the sharp rise in liquefied gas prices reportedly began on Sunday in Zhanaozen, in the southwest of the country.
In the following days, however, protests took over the whole of Kazakhstan, and political demands began to emerge alongside economic ones. The protesters demanded, among other things, the complete departure of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his clan from the leadership of the state.
Peaceful protests soon escalated into clashes with security services. As well as seizing government buildings, attacks on police stations and looting of shops began.
The ODKB sent “peacekeepers” to Kazakhstan on Thursday in response to Tokayev’s request, and the regime now appears to have regained control of the streets of the troubled cities.-
Both members of the security services and protesters have been killed in the crackdown on protests.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry announced that 4404 people had been detained for participating in riots.
At the same time, the National Security Committee (CSC) said on Saturday that former KNB chairman Karim Masimov, a close associate of Nazarbayev, had been arrested on suspicion of “treason” and had lost his post as a result of protests.
At the start of the protests, Nazarbayev himself was replaced as chairman of the Security Council by Tokayev, and news spread that a former president had left Kazakhstan on Friday.
But on Saturday, the former president’s spokesman said he was still in the capital.
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