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Protests in Kazakhstan

Situation calm in Kazakh capital, residents line up at ATMs

The president’s residence has been guarded by the special forces

NUR-SULTAN, January 6. /TASS/. The situation in Nur-Sultan is calm, no protest rallies are being observed, the Internet is still down, a TASS correspondent reported on Thursday.

Public transportation in the capital is functioning as usual, the streets are rather crowded yet there are no mass rallies underway. The president’s residence has been guarded by the special forces since Wednesday night, the police are patrolling the city.

Since the National Bank decided to suspend the operations of all financial organizations, all banks and currency exchange offices are closed, the majority of ATMs are not functioning. The Internet in Kazakhstan again went down overnight on Thursday, payment systems are also down so the residents are attempting to get cash forming long lines at the few functioning ATMs.

Protest rallies against high fuel prices erupted on January 2 in Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangystau Region in southwestern Kazakhstan. Two days later, the protests engulfed Almaty in the country’s southeast and other cities where the protesters clashed with the police. Casualties were reported, the state of emergency was declared in the country. The CSTO Collective Security Council made the decision to send peacekeepers to Kazakhstan in order to stabilize the situation.

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