President Kassym Jomart Tokayev He promised a “firm” response to the unprecedented protests in this central Asian country over rising gas prices, in a televised speech.
“As president, I am obliged to protect the security and peace of our citizens, to care for the integrity of Kazakhstan,” he said in Russian on Kazakh television, promising that he would act “as firmly as possible.”
According to an AFP journalist, the police threw stun grenades and used tear gas at the crowd of several thousand people, but were unable to prevent them from entering the building.
More than 200 people were arrested during the protests in this Central Asian country due to the increase in prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), widely used as a fuel in western Kazakhstan, reported the police.
Thousands of people took to the streets both in Almaty as in the western province of Mangystau, claiming that the price hike was unfair given the enormous energy reserves of the country, a major oil and gas exporter.
On Wednesday afternoon, AFP correspondents in Almaty witnessed how some men dressed in police uniforms threw down their shields and helmets and hugged the protesters. “They passed us,” a woman yelled.
Demonstrations not previously authorized by the authorities are prohibited in Kazakhstan, a former authoritarian Soviet republic, but also the main economy of Central Asia.
Tokayev removed his government on Wednesday and declared a state of emergency in two regions.
An order posted on the presidential website indicated that he had accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Askar Mamin’s cabinet. Until the formation of a new one, Vice Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov will lead the government on an interim basis, he said.
The decision comes after protests in this former Soviet republic that led President Tokayev to decree a state of emergency at dawn for two weeks in Almaty (southeast) and in the Mangystau region (west).
The state of emergency decreed by Tokayev entered into force on Wednesday until January 19 and will imply the imposition of a curfew in both territories from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
Previously, the president had addressed the population in a video posted on social networks to ask for “prudence” and “not to give in to provocations.”
WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal messaging services were not working at night in Kazakhstan, a country of 19 million people where such concentrations are rare.
Television reported Wednesday that the director of a gas plant in the Mangystau region was fired for having “increased the price of gas for no reason.”
The protesters shouted “government resignation” and “let the old man go”, alluding to the former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, mentor de Tokayev.
The president tweeted on Tuesday that the authorities had decided to reduce the price of a liter of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Mangystau from 120 to 50 tengue ($ 0.11) in Mangystau to “ensure the stability of the country,” although that did not appease the protests.
Small marches and arrests were also reported in the capital Nursultan (formerly Astana), named after Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led the country from its Soviet independence until 2019, when he appointed Tokayev as his successor.
Nazarbayev, 81, maintains strong control of the country as president of the security council and “Leader of the Nation,” a constitutional role that guarantees him political privilege and immunity from justice.
Source From: Ambito
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