NUR-SULTAN, January 8. /TASS/. The Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of Kazakhstan launched an investigation into 180 sellers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the department’s press service announced on Saturday.

"As of January 7, the service launched an investigation against entrepreneurs involved in the retail sale of liquefied petroleum gas: 85 - in the Mangystau region, 14 - Karaganda, 22 - Atyrau, 22 - Akmola, 12 - Kyzylorda, 4 - in Nur-Sultan, 5 - in Shymkent, 4 - in Kostanay region, 4 - in North Kazakhstan, 5 - in Turkestan, 2 - in Zhambyl, and 1 - in Almaty region," the statement said.

In all regions, antitrust investigations were initiated on the basis of collusion in establishing and maintaining prices for liquefied petroleum gas.

On January 2, crowds took to the streets in the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangystau Region, in southwestern Kazakhstan, protesting against high fuel prices. Two days later, the protests engulfed Almaty, in the country’s southeast, where the police used flashbangs to disperse the crowd, as well as other cities, including Atyrau, Aktobe (in the west), Uralsk (in the northwest), Taraz, Shymkent, Kyzylorda (in the south), Karaganda (in the northeast) and even Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan. The president imposed a two-week state of emergency in the Mangystau Region and in the Almaty Region, as well as the republic’s largest city of Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan. On January 5, the head of the state also accepted the government’s resignation. Its members will continue to perform their tasks until a new cabinet is formed.