NUR-SULTAN, January 12. /TASS/. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in Almaty where he held a meeting at the emergency operations center, the Tengrinews agency reported.

"We confirm that the president arrived in Almaty. He participated in a meeting of Almaty’s emergency operations headquarters. There was also a meeting with the relatives and friends of those police officers, servicemen who were killed, [the president] offered his condolences and presented awards," Tokaev’s press secretary Berik Uali told a Tengrinews correspondent.

Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities a few days later. The ensuing violence left scores of people injured, with fatalities also being reported. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers have already been deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7.