MOSCOW, January 6/ Sputnik Radio. The Russian Ministry of Defense has published a video of the landing of the first units from the CSTO peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan.
On Thursday morning, the CSTO secretariat reported that units of the organization's collective peacekeeping forces had been sent to Kazakhstan for a limited period of time to stabilize the situation.
The transfer of the Russian part of the peacekeeping contingent to the territory of the Central Asian Republic is carried out by military transport aircraft of the aerospace forces.
Russia as part of the CSTO peacekeeping forces will be represented by units of airborne troops.
The main tasks of the CSTO peacekeepers will be the protection of important state and military facilities, assistance to the Kazakh law enforcement forces in stabilizing the situation and returning it to the legal field, the message says.
Protest actions in Kazakhstan began on January 2. Initially, residents of the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau came out to rallies against a twofold increase in prices for liquefied gas.
However, soon clashes with the police and attempts to seize authorities began to occur in other cities of the republic.
On the fourth of January, the authorities ordered to introduce state regulation of prices for liquefied gas and gasoline for six months and returned prices to the previous level, but the protesters did not calm down, and by the evening looters became more active.
On January 5, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dissolved the government and announced that he was becoming the head of the Security Council instead of the first president of the republic, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
A state of emergency has been imposed on the entire territory of the republic.
The Kazakh authorities have asked for help from other CSTO members to neutralize the "terrorist threat". The Organization has sent a collective peacekeeping force to the Republic.
Earlier, Sputnik radio reported that the European Union condemned the violence and pogroms in Alma-Ata.