MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Peacekeepers will remain in Kazakhstan for a limited time and will leave the country after completing their mission, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, addressing an extraordinary session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Collective Security Council.

"The CSTO has sent its collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan and I would like to point out that they have been deployed there for a limited time that the Kazakh president, the head of state, will find appropriate," Putin said. "After completing their mission, all of the forces will be withdrawn from Kazakhstan," the Russian leader added.

Putin also emphasized that the CSTO’s peacekeeping mission in Kazakhstan was extremely timely and legitimate. "We managed to fully deploy the forces in a fairly short period. We view our joint activities as extremely timely and absolutely legitimate," he said.

Putin stressed that the CSTO forces had been deployed to Kazakhstan based on an official request of the country’s authorities and Article 4 of the 1992 Collective Security Treaty, which says that if a member state faces aggression, all other members should provide it with the necessary support and assistance, including military aid.

The Russian president stressed that "it was crucial to respond" to the acts of aggression in Kazakhstan "without delay." This is why, in his words, the heads of all CSTO member states, including the Armenian prime minister, who currently chairs the CSTO Collective Security Council, immediately supported the Kazakh president's request.

"It is highly important that our organization, including its secretariat, managed to promptly and smoothly take all the necessary decisions within a tight time frame, in fact, within hours, in order to foil attempts to undermine the government foundations in Kazakhstan, prevent the domestic situation from completely deteriorating and stop the terrorists, looters and other criminals," Putin noted.