MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, or upper parliament house, Valentina Matviyenko has described mass riots in Kazakhstan as an act of banditry and terrorist aggression.
"The act of banditry and terrorist aggression has demonstrated the scale of its destructiveness and posed a direct threat not only to the republic’s sovereignty and territorial integrity but also to the security of neighboring countries. We strongly condemn the inhuman actions geared to draw the country into a whirlpool of chaos and lawlessness, which entailed numerous human deaths and which have no justification," she wrote on a telegram to her Kazakh counterpart, upper parliament house speaker Maulen Ashimbayev.
According to Matviyenko, Russia welcomes Kazakhstan’s "confident and consistent actions" geared to restore the constitutional order. "We are ready to continue to support you in your efforts to overcome any problems," she emphasized.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings being ransacked in several cities a few days later. The ensuing violence left scores of people injured, with fatalities also being reported. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers have already been deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7. However, the situation in Almaty is still tense.
January 10 was declared a day of nationwide mourning in Kazakhstan. So far, around 1,500 Russian nationals have been evacuated from Kazakhstan.