Russian soldiers take Almaty airport, violence continues in Kazakhstan | Abroad

According to the Russian news agency Tass, shots were fired late into the night in the center of Almaty on Thursday and the building of a television channel is said to be on fire. Also on Friday morning, journalists report that there is fighting in the city.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a televised address Friday morning that he has ordered the military to fire without warning if the disturbances continue. He said he would not negotiate with the protesters and that those who do not surrender “will be destroyed.” According to Tokayev, Almaty is threatened by “20,000 bandits.”

He thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for his quick decision to send “peacekeeping troops”. The Russian-led military alliance CSTO decided to send 2,500 troops to Kazakhstan after Tokaev asked for help.

Protests in Kazakhstan broke out after the price of LPG doubled at the beginning of this year. Tokaev reversed that, but the demonstrations continued and increasingly turned against the established political order.

Russian President Putin cannot cope with the unrest in Kazakhstan at the moment. That and more in a new episode of the podcast worldly:

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