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Baikonur head plans to lift terror alert on Monday - Roscosmos

According to the Russian space official Dmitry Rogozin, the situation in the city and at the launch facility has remained calm

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The terror alert level, raised to Blue (Guarded) in Kazakhstan’s city of Baikonur next to an eponymous space launch center, will be lifted on Monday, the head of Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said.

"The head of the city administration, Konstantin Busygin, has just informed me that the previously imposed ‘blue’ terror alert level is planned to be lifted on Monday," Rogozin wrote in his Telegram channel.

According to the Russian space official, the situation in the city and at the launch facility has remained calm. The first launch from Baikonur in 2022 is scheduled for February 15.

The terror alert level in Baikonur was raised on January 7, amid a failed insurrection attempt in Kazakhstan. On January 19, it was extended due to reports of a possible terror attack being plotted in the area. The city administration said on that day that additional security measures were in place, and advised citizens to remain vigilant.

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.