A number of "strategic facilities" in Kazakhstan have been secured by a Russia-led military alliance invited to restore order, Kazakh officials said Sunday, amid the deadliest outbreak of violence in the country's 30 years of independence.
Dozens of people have been killed, thousands detained and public buildings have been torched across the Central Asian country in the past week, prompting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to issue shoot-to-kill orders to end unrest he has blamed on bandits and terrorists.
At Tokayev's invitation, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent troops in to restore order, an intervention that comes at a time of high tension in Russia-U.S. relations ahead of new talks on the Ukraine crisis.
"A number of strategic facilities have been transferred under the protection of the united peacekeeping contingent of the CSTO member states," Kazakhstan's presidential office said in a statement detailing a security briefing chaired by Tokayev. It did not identify the facilities.
Tokayev says the deployment will be temporary, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Friday that Kazakhstan may have trouble getting them out.
"I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave," Blinken told reporters.
The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed his comments as a "boorish" attempt "to make a funny joke today about the tragic events in Kazakhstan."
"When Americans are in your house, it can be difficult to stay alive, not being robbed or raped," it alleged.
The administration said 5,800 people had been arrested in connection with the unrest, including a "significant number" of foreign citizens. It said the situation had stabilized in all regions.
The demonstrations in Kazakhstan began as a response to a fuel price hike before spiraling into a broad movement against Tokayev's government and the man he replaced as president of the resource-rich former Soviet republic, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev, 81, was the longest serving ruler of any former Soviet state until he turned over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019. His family is widely believed to have retained influence in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital that bears his name.
Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry, quoted Sunday by local media, said initial estimates put property damage at around 175 million euros ($198 million).
More than 100 businesses and banks were attacked and looted and more than 400 vehicles destroyed, the ministry was quoted as saying.
"Today the situation is stabilized in all regions of the country," Kazakh Interior Minister Erlan Turgumbayev said, adding nonetheless that "the counter-terror operation is continuing in a bid to re-establish order in the country."
A relative calm appeared to return to Almaty, with police sometimes firing shots into the air to stop people approaching the city's central square, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said Saturday.
Tokayev removed Nazarbayev on Wednesday as head of the country's Security Council, a role in which he had continued to wield significant influence.
Kazakhstan's former intelligence chief and two-time prime minister Karim Masimov has been arrested on suspicion of treason.
