President of Kazakhstan orders shoot to kill and thanks Putin for support

“Anyone who does not surrender will be destroyed; I have given the order to the security forces of shoot to kill, without prior warning. “In a new televised intervention, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassim Jomart-Tokayev, has confirmed his willingness to crush at all costs the revolt that has shaken his country since last weekend, even at the price of provoking a blood bath. The president has also fervently thanked Russia for the help provided to quell the protests, a military deployment of large dimensions that has required the use of dozens of transport planes.

“The militants have not laid down their arms; they continue to commit crimes or are preparing to do so,” the Kazakh head of state justified in a televised intervention. Reflecting a hardening Regarding his initial strategy for the protests, in which he made some concessions to the protesters’ demands, the president has advanced that from now on there will be no negotiations with those he has described as “terrorists”, despite suggestions to the contrary. from numerous European leaders: “How stupid! What kind of conversations can we have with criminals Y assassins“?, he blurted out. The leader took advantage of the speech to thank the Russian president Vladimir Putin with fervent words To have responded “very quickly“at your request for help.

The size of the military contingent sent by the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty, the military alliance led by Russia that groups together some former Soviet republics, became crystal clear this Friday after the Russian authorities released images of dozens of airplanes transportation in Kazakh airports. It is, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, 70 Iliushin Il-76 Y five Antonov A-124, both large capacity appliances. The Russian military personnel sent to the Central Asian country belong to the 45th Special Forces Brigade, to the 31st Brigade Yet the 98th Division of Airborne Troops.

A hard man at the head of the mission

At the head of the contingent is Antoni Serdiukov, commander of the Airborne Troops of the Russian Army, and considered a hard-line soldier. According to ‘The Insider‘, he is an officer with extensive experience in the most controversial military operations undertaken for his country in recent decades: he participated in the two wars in Chechnya, he was in Kosovo and also in the war in Syria. The pro-government newspaper ‘Izvestia’ came to describe him as “the shiny organizer“Of the annexation of Crimea.

Related news

It is too early to determine the long-term effects of the Russian-led CSTO military presence on the foreign and domestic policy of the Kazakh state. Konstantin Eggert, a commentator on Russian issues, admits, as do most analysts, that there is a “great possibility” that President Tokayev will become “totally dependent” on Putin, something similar to what has happened with Aleksándr Lukashenko in Belarus, although it is a circumstance that has yet to be elucidated. “We do not know if the events in Kazakhstan are the result of an internal struggle of clans; in that case, even for Russia it would be difficult to become an arbiter of the situation,” he assures over the phone. In the opinion of this expert, the duration of the military operation, that is, whether or not it is prolonged in time, will give clues about the nature of the future relationships “between Tokayev and Putin”.

In Washington and in European capitals, many leaders wonder if in the long term the Kremlin will be able to modify the foreign policy of Kazakhstan, an ally of Moscow but at the same time with Good relations with the West and China. “Putin will try to modify this multi-support strategy, but it is not clear that he will succeed; it will be difficult, given the high US investments in the sector of the Petroleum and from Kazakh gas“, Eggert wishes.