Kazakhstan president asks Russia for troops to quash popular uprising

The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has asked the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for military “assistance” to suppress popular uprising sweeping through the nation.

Claiming that “terrorists” were overrunning strategic facilities across the country, Tokayev claimed that allied military help needed to quell actions of “terrorist bands.”

Tokayev slammed the violent protesters who have overrun government buildings and other facilities in several cities across the country. Moreover, he said an “intense firefight” between an airborne military unit and the “terrorists” had been going on outside the country’s largest city, Almaty, at the time of his address. These highly organized “terrorists” had been trained abroad, Tokayev alleged.

Tokayev said he had already requested the CSTO nations’ help in fighting the “terrorist threat,” which he said was aimed at “undermining the territorial integrity” of Kazakhstan.

“I believe reaching out to the CSTO partners is appropriate and timely,” President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was quoted as saying by the media late on Wednesday.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is a Russia-led intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia that consists of selected post-Soviet states. The treaty had its origins to the Soviet Armed Forces, which was gradually replaced by the United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Kazakhstan protests started due to a rapid rise in liquefied gas prices, after the government removed price caps, and eventually grew into a countrywide anti-government uprising.

So far, the unrest has led to the resignation of the country’s cabinet and the government’s pledge to reinstate fuel price limits for six months.