Moscow. January 12. INTERFAX - The CSTO peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan has been completed, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at a meeting in Nur-Sultan with CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zasem.
"The Head of the Kazakh state thanked the allies for conducting a peacekeeping operation and assistance in the conditions of a terrorist attack. The President of Kazakhstan announced the completion of the CSTO peacekeeping operation," CSTO Spokesman Vladimir Zaneitdinov said after the meeting.
Earlier, Tokayev himself announced the beginning of the withdrawal of CSTO peacekeepers from Kazakhstan on January 13.
The withdrawal of CSTO peacekeepers from Kazakhstan will take place after the tasks are completed, in cooperation with the authorities of Kazakhstan and with the involvement of Russian military aviation, Colonel-General Andrey Serdyukov, commander of the Russian Airborne Forces and the contingent of peacekeepers in Kazakhstan, said on January 11.
Serdyukov said: "Currently, the command of the collective peacekeeping forces of the CSTO, together with the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is developing a plan for the transfer of objects protected by peacekeepers to the law enforcement agencies of the country."
The contingents of the peacekeeping forces are stationed in the cities of Nur-Sultan, Alma-Ata and in the Alma-Ata region. The command post is deployed on the basis of the Military Institute of the Ground Forces in Alma-Ata, CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas said on January 10.
According to official data of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, elite units have been sent to Kazakhstan as part of the CSTO contingent - the 45th separate special purpose brigade of the Airborne Forces, the 98th Airborne Division and the 31st separate airborne assault Brigade.
The number of the Russian contingent is not officially called.
The Armenian Defense Ministry announced the dispatch of a peacekeeping unit of 100 military personnel to Kazakhstan. The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that it had sent a peacekeeping company from the 103rd Airborne Vitebsk Brigade of special operations forces to Kazakhstan. According to the Ministry of Defense of Kyrgyzstan, 150 soldiers of the Scorpion special forces unit, eight armored vehicles and 11 vehicles have been sent to Kazakhstan.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation last Friday announced the transfer of a unit of the peacekeeping contingent of Tajikistan to Kazakhstan by a Russian military transport aircraft.
On January 10, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that Russian paratroopers ensure the security of the Alma-Ata International Airport.
On January 12, the Military Department of the Russian Federation reported that under the protection of the CSTO peacekeepers are: airfields, bakeries, thermal power plants, television centers, water pumping stations, military depots, arsenals and other important state, military and socially significant facilities. In particular, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the CSTO forces protect CHP-1, CHP-2, CHP-3, Alma-Ata Bakery, Druzhba city water utility, three telecommunications centers Almaty-Telecom.
