CSTO operation in Kazakhstan developed by Minsk, Moscow: Lukashenko
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reveals that the CSTO mission in Kazakhstan, which had been requested by the government, was planned in less than an hour with his Russian counterpart.
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks at Commonwealth of Independent States Heads of Government Council in Minsk, Belarus, May 28, 2021 (Reuters)
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan was developed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin on short notice, the Belarusian president said Saturday.
"I will say without boasting: this entire operation, down to the details, was developed jointly by the two presidents of Russia and Belarus within one hour," Lukashenko told a meeting with the Belarusian peacekeepers, the Belta news agency reported.
He also noted that CSTO peacekeeping forces acted in a "timely and effective" manner, which reflects that all CSTO states are ready to defend the sovereignty and independence of fellow CSTO member states.
The CSTO operation
Riots started in Kazakhstan in early January, when thousands of demonstrators took to the street to protest against the surging gas prices in the Central Asian nation. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev then declared a state of emergency in the west of the country and Almaty.
The protests shortly took a violent turn, and President Tokayev appealed to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for help in quelling protests across the country, which he said were led by "terrorist gangs".
Less than a week after the protests began, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the mission of the Russian-led peacekeeping troops in Kazakhstan would soon come to an end.
Three days after President Putin's announcement, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the first units of the Russian landing forces within the CSTO forces left Alma-Ata airport to their point of permanent deployment.
