GENEVA, January 21. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the Geneva talks to explain Washington’s reaction to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) forces being employed in Kazakhstan.
"I asked Blinken today to explain the fact that after Kazakh President sought assistance in suppressing the terrorist threat, which was fueled from outside, on the basis of the CSTO Treaty, he [Blinken] publicly claimed: let Kazakhstan explain why it had done so. But he did not provide any comment," Russia’s top diplomat told a press conference following the talks on Friday.
"This reflects the mentality of the western community, which is irreparably confident in its own exclusiveness, meaning they can do everything, whereas others - only what they allow," Lavrov added.
Protests broke out in various Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots and attacks against police and military personnel, with government buildings ransacked across several cities a few days later. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the CSTO requesting assistance, and as a result, the alliance’s peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7. According to the General Prosecutor's Office, more than 4,500 people were injured in the insurrection, and the bodies of 225 of those killed were taken to local morgues.