Bloomberg Quicktake: Now published this video item, entitled “Putin Calls Kazakhstan Protests an Act of Agression” – below is their description.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the unrest in Kazakhstan “an attack on the country” and “an act of aggression” masterminded from abroad.
Speaking on Monday at an extraordinary virtual summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led military alliance of six former Soviet states, Putin said the events in Kazakhstan “are not the first and not the last attempt at interfering in the internal affairs of our states from the outside.”
The authorities in Kazakhstan said Monday that nearly 8,000 people were detained by police during protests that descended into violence last week and marked the worst unrest the former Soviet nation has faced since gaining independence 30 years ago.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday described the events of last week as a “terrorist aggression” against the country and dismissed reports of the authorities fighting peaceful demonstrators as “disinformation.”
The country’s Health Ministry said Sunday that 164 people, including three children, were killed in the unrest.
Kazakh authorities declared a state of emergency over the unrest, and Tokayev requested help from the CSTO.
The group authorized sending about 2,500 mostly Russian troops to Kazakhstan.
Putin said peacekeepers were deployed in Kazakhstan for a limited time and would leave the country after completing their mission.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko called for strengthening the CSTO and acting without “looking at the West.”
“Figuratively speaking, we shouldn’t be unnecessarily ashamed in this regard, looking at the West, America or some other states,” he said at the summit. “If we look sharply around, we will break our neck.”
Bloomberg Quicktake: Now YouTube Channel
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