Russia sent paratroopers troops to Kazakhstan on Thursday (6) to quell an uprising in the country after violence spread across the territory of the former Soviet republic.
Police said they had killed dozens of mutineers in the main city of the Central Asian country, Almaty. The country’s state television said 13 members of the security forces had died, including two who were beheaded.
Reuters journalists in Almaty said a presidential residence and city hall were on fire. As of Thursday afternoon, the city’s airport, which had been taken over by protesters earlier, was firmly under the control of military teams. Burnt vehicles fill the country’s streets.
Several armored vehicles and dozens of troops had entered Almaty’s main square on Thursday morning, and gunfire could be heard as troops approached the crowd, Reuters correspondents reported from the scene.
The square looked peaceful later on Thursday, with between 200 and 300 protesters still gathered without any troops present.
The internet has been shut down across the country and the full extent of the violence is impossible to calculate, but the unrest is unprecedented for Kazakhstan, ruled firmly since Soviet times by 81-year-old leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who held it the reins of the country even though he resigned three years ago as president.
Nazarbayev’s chosen successor, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, requested overnight the presence of troops from ally Russia as part of a military alliance of former Soviet republics. He blamed overseas-trained terrorists for the riots and said they had captured buildings and weapons.
“It is a deterioration of the integrity of the state and, more importantly, it is an attack on our citizens who are asking me…to help them urgently,” he said.
Moscow said it will consult with Kazakhstan and allies on new measures to support “counter-terrorism operations” by Kazakh authorities. He also called the uprising an attempt by foreign inspiration to undermine the country’s security by force.
Neither Kazakhstan nor Russia provided evidence to support their claims of foreign involvement.
Reference: CNN Brasil
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