NUR-SULTAN, January 7. /TASS/. Free mass media and foreign activists became accomplices in unleashing the tragedy in Kazakhstan, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in his address to the nation on Friday.

"These so-called free media and foreign figures, who are far from the fundamental interests of our multinational people, are playing aiding and abetting role in violations of law and order. It can be said without exaggeration that all these irresponsible demagogues became accomplices in unleashing the tragedy in Kazakhstan," Tokayev said.

According to him, such actions cause significant damage to economic, social and political stability.

"We will take hard line on all acts of vandalism. There is no doubt that we will quickly overcome this bad streak in our history," he added.

Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, later growing into mass riots and attacks on government offices. Thousands of casualties have been reported, including fatalities. The Kazakh President asked the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance of former Soviet republics, for help. First peacekeeping units have already started fulfilling their tasks in Kazakhstan. The government said order has generally been restored in all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7, while the situation is the most difficult in Almaty.