The Kazakhstan Thread
 

"Russian paratroopers have flown into Kazakhstan as part of a Kremlin-led ex-Soviet military alliance to help quash an uprising by armed protesters who have torched Kazakh government buildings and chased the police off the streets.

The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) said it had deployed peacekeeping troops to Kazakhstan after local security forces killed dozens of protesters in the worst unrest since the fall of the Soviet Union thirty years ago.

Airborne troops from Russia, as well as contingents from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, will take part in the operation".

Overnight, Kazakh special forces also deployed into central Almaty, the leafy crucible of middle-class life in Kazakhstan, fighting gun battles with the protesters.

Dozens have been liquidated. The identities are being established", Saltanat Azirbek, an Almaty police spokesperson, told media.

Photos from Almaty showed Kazakh soldiers wearing balaclavas and full combat kit patrolling through the empty streets of Kazakhstan's normally bustling commercial hub."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...curity-forces/

Russian ac have been reporting flying out some of the big wigs

"Back in the USSR" Stalin would be laughing. A sad day for any sort of freedom

There is a video doing the rounds of Kazakh protestors handing out rifles to the crowd - if they get into a few military storage sites this could turn into a full blown uprising.

All triggered by raising tax on fuel wasn’t it? Doesn’t take much for a rebellion.

Praque 1968 all over again.

Hardly - Kazakhstan politics are very very different

With rifles being handed out does that mean he's losing his own military so has to get the Russians in since he can rely on them? Is it mainly conscripts?

Fonsini: From what I can gather the fuel price rise was more a case of the final straw rather than the cause. There has been a lot of unhappiness there for many years, a lot of it to do with fat-cats, and the economy. Something had to give, and fuel price was it.

The russians ? No volunteer forces various spetsnaz units, from VFV and GRU and suposedly the 11th Guards engineering unit

I think Russia has memories of 1978 and the Iranian Revolution.

Russia is fearful of events in the Stans - Stalin et al moved millions of Russians there in the 20-60s where, in Kazakhstan, they briefly became the majority. Now demographics have done their work and the population is 65% Kazakh and 23% ethnic Russian - and Islamic/Orthodox in the same percentages.

Russia fears contagion from Afghanistan through Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and north into the southern Russian republics and will stamp down heavily, and/or assist in stamping down, on any populist uprisings.

How long could Russia keep this up if trouble flares again here or elsewhere, given its stance WRT NATO?

A quick trawl of the web revealed all manner of trouble brewing in various of the 'Stans. Russia is certainly going to have its work cut out.

Reuters: Kazakh president gives shoot-to-kill order to put down uprising
ALMATY, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's president said on Friday he had ordered his forces to shoot-to-kill to deal with disturbances from those he called bandits and terrorists, a day after Russia sent troops to put down a countrywide uprising.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...ed-2022-01-07/

Worrysome news. Which leader in their right mind orders the authorities to shoot-to-kill protestors of their own people?

Agreed Beamr, and I've just added a little emphasis Hope you don't mind?

sir, that is a welcome emphasis.
I wish I'd done it myself.

Lots of good posts on troop movements.

Can't help of thinking that Russia is using Kazakhstan as an opportunity to showcase its abilities in troop movement and rapid deployment. It seems to me a bit out of proportion.

Irony…

Russia squeezes gas supplies that results in wholesale fuel prices rising, this then results in rioting in Kazakhstan at the doubling of fuel prices overnight, Kazakhstan then invites Russia in as a “peace keeping” force to control a problem they instigated.

His problem there is he may be tied down there for ages, nothing like foreigners coming into a country and shooting at the populace to form a resistance movement.

A significant proportion of Kazakh citizens are ethnic Russian. A more significant proportion of the Kazakh population just want want stability.

I hold no firm opinion myself as to the true cause of the current unrest , but the news I am hearing from personal contacts in Kazakhstan is largely supportive for CSTO deployment.

​​​The general opinion amongst those I am in contact with in Almaty is that Russian led CSTO intervention is welcome and required.

As a relative (pun intended) outsider I also support CSTO intervention.

Enough pussy footing around with radicals and trouble makers.