National mourning tomorrow.. An escalation of the dispute between Russia and...

The dispute between Moscow and Washington has escalated over the Russian intervention in the Kazakhstan crisis. While Moscow is working to hold a summit for the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Washington has expressed its dissatisfaction with the Russian intervention, while the authorities have declared control of the situation inside the country.

The Kremlin said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had a telephone conversation to discuss the situation in Kazakhstan.

And the RIA Novosti website quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that sending peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan was carried out on a legal basis, and that the US reaction was aggressive and blunt.

Zakharova explained that the most important thing is that the legitimately elected president of Kazakhstan and the legitimate government summoned the organization to which she belongs for help.

She said in response to a previous statement by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that there is a lesson from history that when Americans enter your home, it is difficult to survive.

Blinken had said that there is a lesson from history that when Russians enter your house, it is difficult to force them out.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the CSTO forces took control of Almaty airport, and then placed it under the control of the Kazakh security forces.

Yesterday, the ministry said that 20 military cargo planes continued to transport Russian forces and their equipment to Kazakhstan.

US Consulate

The US State Department allowed the employees of its consulate general in the Kazakh city of Almaty to voluntarily leave the country due to the recent events in Kazakhstan.

The ministry said in a statement – Saturday – that it had agreed to leave all its employees and family members working at the Consulate General in Almaty, with the exception of emergency personnel.

She said that there may be demonstrations and strikes in Kazakhstan, and that these events could develop quickly and without warning, and turn into violence.

She explained that US citizens in Kazakhstan should be aware that violent protests could severely affect the US Embassy’s ability to provide consular services.

Continuation of confrontations

Meanwhile, local media reported that Almaty airport was closed indefinitely.

President Tokayev said that the authorities had restored what he called the constitutional order in most of them, after days of unrest that left 26 people dead, hundreds injured and thousands arrested.

Tokayev stated that he gave orders to shoot those he described as criminals without warning.

And Sputnik Kazakhstan has reported that there are ongoing battles and clashes in the outskirts of the city of Almaty along the highway between the city and the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

The former head of Kazakhstan’s security service, Karim Masimov, was arrested on charges of treason after his dismissal following the outbreak of confrontations.

And the “National Security Committee” announced that its former director Karim Masimov (56 years) was arrested after the start of an investigation on charges of “high treason”. He is the first senior official to be arrested since the unrest began about a week ago.

Masimov, an ally and close confidant of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was dismissed from his position as head of the committee this week after bloody riots that began after demonstrations against the increase in gas prices.

Masimov served as prime minister twice during Nazarbayev’s era, and had been at the head of the National Security Service since 2016.

Anger

Kazakhstan – the largest country in Central Asia – is rocked by a protest movement that began on Sunday in the countryside after the increase in gas prices, and then spread to a number of cities, including Almaty, the country’s economic capital, where the demonstrations developed into riots that killed and arrested thousands.

On January 5, the government announced its resignation against the backdrop of protests against it, followed by the imposition of a state of emergency throughout the country with the aim of maintaining public security, while 26 protesters were killed, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Tension continued on Saturday in Almaty, where police shots were heard in the air to prevent people from approaching the city’s main square.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared Monday a national day of mourning for the victims of the riots in the country.

Former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called on the people to support the government to confront the crisis the country is going through, his spokesman announced Saturday.

According to observers, the anger of the demonstrators is directed not only in response to the rise in gas prices, but also against Nazarbayev, who continued to control power from the scenes despite his resignation.

Nazarbayev ruled the country from 1989 to 2019 and has significant influence.

international concern

The unrest in a country of 19 million people is worrying Western powers.

And Germany announced – Saturday – that it will stop exporting weapons to Kazakhstan. A spokesman for the German Economy Ministry told AFP that the value of the exported materials was low (2.2 million euros in 2021), but the ban was “necessary”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for an end to the violence gripping Kazakhstan.

The Qatar News Agency said that the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, had a telephone conversation with the President of Kazakhstan, in which they discussed the developments in the country.

The agency added that the Kazakh president briefed the Emir of Qatar on the efforts being made to calm the situation in Kazakhstan and enhance security and stability there.

For his part, the Emir of Qatar expressed his confidence in the ability of the Kazakh authorities to overcome this crisis and return things to normal.

On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the “strong measures” of the Kazakh government against the demonstrators, saying that they reflect President Tokayev’s “high sense of responsibility”, according to official media.