Russia has never planned to keep its peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said in a Twitter post, commenting on claims by other users. “Such wrong guesses happen if you listen too much to [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken, [White House] Press Secretary Jen Psaki or US Under Secretary of State [Victoria Nuland]. Otherwise you would know that we did what we promised from the outset with CSTO partners and never intended to stay in Kazakhstan,” he wrote.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities, primarily in Almaty, a few days later. The ensuing violence left thousands of people injured, with fatalities also being reported. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions.
Gradual withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from Kazakhstan began on January 13, and is expected to last several days.
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