MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov is unaware if Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains contact with Kazakhstan’s first President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

"I still have no information on the matter and can’t tell you anything," Peskov said when asked if Putin maintained contact with the first Kazakh president and was aware of his whereabouts.

Putin and Nazarbayev last met in person at an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in late December 2021.

Protests erupted in various Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots that involved attacks on police officers, service members and government buildings in many cities of the country, primarily in Almaty. Thousands of people were injured, and the number of casualties is unknown. The CSTO sent peacekeepers to the Central Asian country at President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s request. Law and order, the Kazakh authorities affirm, was generally restored to all of the country’s regions.