Armenia plans online CSTO summit on Kazakhstan as 1 dead & 49 injured in Atyrau region

Armenia on Saturday announced that it will organise an online Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit on the ongoing civilian unrest in Kazakhstan. The initiative comes as at least one person was killed, and 49 others were wounded in the mass riots countrywide as civilians protested against the fuel price hike in Kazakhstan’s Atyrau region, Russian state-affiliated channels reported, citing the region’s head Makhambet Dosmukhambetov. The Kremlin does not yet have information about the specific dates for the video conference of the leaders of the countries that are a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), but the meeting is slated to take place in the Russian presidential, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held a telephonic dialogue with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the country’s law and order breach, noting that it was slowly spiralling towards stabilisation after the CSTO countries, of which Russia is a part, sent peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan. Tokayev noted that he plans to initiate a video conference of the CSTO Collective Security Council under the chairmanship of Armenia, a proposal Russia agreed to.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Putin hold a dialogue

Separately, in a phone call dialogue, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Putin agreed on the role of the Armenian side, the current chairman of the CSTO, in holding an online meeting of the heads of the organisation’s member states on the situation in Kazakhstan. Earlier, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Armenia discussed the situation in Kazakhstan, expressed concern, and agreed to the importance of bringing the violent uprising within the ex-soviet nation under control. Armenia’s permanent representative to the United Nations informed the organisations of the CSTO mission in the Central Asian country, ANI reported. 

Both Russian President Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Tokayev also discussed restoring “law and order” in Kazakhstan following an unrest. Several high-profile officials were detained on suspicion of treason, reports confirmed. Hundreds of citizens and military personnel have sustained injury trying to disperse the violent mob that protested against the authoritarian rule and rebuked government policies. Kazakh President Tokayev was pushed to declare a state of emergency until January 19 as he also dissolved the cabinet and became the head of the Security Council.