Kazakhstan says “strategic facilities” are under surveillance, according to Reuters

ALMATY (Reuters) – Many “strategic facilities” in Kazakhstan are under the auspices of a Russian-led military alliance to restore order, the presidential office said on Sunday, one of the deadliest manifestations of the country’s 30-year independence. .

Dozens of people have been killed, thousands have been arrested and public buildings have been set on fire in the Central Asian country over the past week, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called for an end to unrest that has been blamed on bandits. and terrorists.

At the invitation of Tokayev, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent troops to restore order, intervening in Russia and the US during high-tension talks ahead of new talks on the Ukraine crisis.

“Several strategic facilities have been transferred under the auspices of the CSTO United States peacekeeping contingent,” the presidential office said in a statement specifying a security conference led by Tokayev.

He has not identified the facility.

The administration said 5,800 people had been arrested in connection with the riots, including a “large number” of foreign nationals. He said the situation had stabilized in all regions.

Demonstrations in Kazakhstan began in response to rising fuel prices before Tokaiev’s government and Nursultan Nazarbayev replaced him as president of the former resource-rich Soviet republic in a broad movement against the man.

Nazarbayev, 81, was the longest-serving ruler of the former Soviet state until he gave Tokayev the presidency in 2019. It is widely believed that his family maintained the influence of the Nur-Sultan in the capital built for this purpose.

Tokaiev removed Nazarbayev as chairman of the country’s Security Council on Tuesday, and he continued to have a strong influence on the task.

Former Kazakhstan intelligence chief Karim Massimov and the prime minister have been arrested twice on charges of treason.