MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Assessments of Western countries regarding the actions of the CSTO member states in Kazakhstan are cynical, the organization has shown its capacity and relevance, Speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko told Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"This cynicism, you know, is so evident. Where is NATO, where is the US, where is Kazakstan? We have the longest border with Kazakhstan. If [they] didn’t manage with this situation, it would be a threat not only to Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, it would be a threat to the sovereignty of neighboring countries," she said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin in the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program.

She stressed that there was skepticism about the CSTO before. "Here, the CSTO has demonstrated its capacity, relevance and timeliness of the establishment of this organization," Matvienko added.

According to her, the CSTO member states showed that it is a serious organization, and the West should deal with the fact that "in case of the color revolution in any other state, the CSTO will always defend itself."

Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities, in the first place, in Almaty, 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 were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, have been restored to all of the country’s regions by now.