NUR-SULTAN, January 7. /TASS/. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced a decision to resume Internet access in some regions of the republic. He said it during his address to the people of the country on Friday.
"Following the stabilization of the situation, I have made a decision to turn on the Internet connection in certain regions of the country at certain time intervals," he said.
"I am sure that this decision will have a positive effect on the life of our citizens. But I warn you that free access to the Internet does not mean free placement of speculations, slander, insults, incitement calls. If such content appears, we will take measures to detect and punish their authors," the President said, stressing that "the counter-terrorist operation continues."
In his speech on Friday, Tokayev also pointed at complicity of so-called free mass media and foreign activists in unleashing the tragedy in Kazakhstan.
"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.
"We will take hard line on all acts of vandalism," 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. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev 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.