GORKI, January 28. /TASS/. The violent January 2022 riots in Kazakhstan erupted as a result of an outside plot to carry out a color revolution scenario, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Russian media outlets, including TASS.

"Clearly, an attempt to implement the usual color revolution scenario was made in Kazakhstan, as it was done before in other countries, including Ukraine. And it certainly causes concern," Medvedev noted. According to him, there were certain external causes for those developments. "There was a desire to destabilize the situation and change the government through criminal and terrorist means, and external players took advantage of it and tried to interfere in the process," he added.

However, there is also a domestic cause for the instability, the Russian Security Council deputy chairman pointed out, adding that "although Kazakhstan is a developed and modern country, it still has a lot of problems." Medvedev explained that "it is because of an income gap, since there are poor people and cliques of oligarchs that cause public irritation."

Medvedev emphasized that in Kazakhstan, the peacekeeping forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) had successfully carried out their first mission. "After [Kazakh] President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had sent a request to CSTO countries, these troops were deployed. <...> I believe that it also helped restore order in the country," the Russian Security Council deputy chairman stated.