MINSK, January 14. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Western intelligence services were responsible for the recent riots in Kazakhstan, BelTA agency reported on Friday.
"Special services were at work," he said. "That went unnoticed."
Kazakhstan is a country that’s of interest to major transnational corporations, the president said. It’s possible to use Kazakhstan to influence Russia, China and the entire Asia, he said.
"The stakes were high," Lukashenko said.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with ransacked buildings and attacks on police, military servicemen and government offices in many cities, mostly in Almaty. Thousands of people were injured, while the exact number of fatalities hasn’t been reported. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev requested assistance from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization and the bloc deployed peacekeepers to Kazakhstan. Law and order were generally restored to all of the country’s regions, Kazakh authorities said.