Sending Russian-led troops out of Kazakhstan announced by President Toqaev

In Central Asia, Kazakhstan’s President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has announced the withdrawal of the foreign soldiers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which is led by Russia, from Kazakhstan after unrest in the country has subsided, American broadcaster Radio Free Europe reports.
Toqaev addressed the country’s parliament on Tuesday, January 11. The President stated that the CSTO troops will complete their withdrawal over the next ten days now as public order had been mostly restored in Kazakhstan. The CSTO military contingent was deployed to Kazakhstan in the first full week of January after the leadership of the oil-rich country called the Russian-led bloc for military assistance when protests sparked by a fuel price hike turned deadly with security personnel and mobs clashing on city streets nationwide.
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Russia’s Defence Ministry announced, in turn, that two of its Il-76 military transport planes arrived in Moscow on January 11 after leaving from the airport in Kazakhstan’s most populous city, Almaty. According to Moscow, each plane was carrying 145 Russian citizens. It also said that the repatriation of Russia citizens from Kazakhstan «will continue until the task is implemented in full».
Toqaev claimed that «foreign-trained terrorists» were behind the protests in an attempt to overthrow the government. Importantly, human rights specialists from the United Nations on January 11 urged the Kazakh authorities to stop their «unrestrained use of force, including lethal force, against protesters.» 44 people have been officially confirmed to have died in the unrest and close to 8,000 people have been detained, Radio Free Europe reports.