MOSCOW, January 6. /TASS/. Aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ military and transport aviation are sending the Airborne forces’ military units to Kazakhstan as part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s peacekeeping forces, the CSTO Secretariat told reporters on Thursday.

"Russia’s military units of the Airborne forces have joined the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces. Currently, the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ military and transport aviation are sending Russian units of the peacekeeping contingent to the Republic of Kazakhstan," the statement said.

According to the Secretariat, the advanced units have started fulfilling the assigned tasks.

The protests in Kazakhstan flared up on January 2 in the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangystau Region, in the country’s southwest, where citizens protested against high liquefied petroleum prices. Two days later, the riots erupted in Almaty, in the southeast, and other cities across the republic, where clashes with police broke out. Deaths have been reported. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev imposed a two-week state of emergency across the country and dismissed the government. Speaking at the Security Council’s meeting, he branded those individuals who went on a rampage as terrorists and said he had requested assistance of the member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a post-Soviet security bloc. The CSTO Collective Security Council made a decision to send peacekeepers to Kazakhstan to stabilize the situation.