President Gives "Shoot-To-Kill" Order, Dozens Dead, 1000s Detained, Russia Intervening in Kazakhstan

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When fuel prices go up what happens? Do you get annoyed at the inconvenience? What about joining massive protests and taking place in a would-be revolution? That’s what happened in Kazakhstan on January 2nd when tens of thousands started taking to the streets in Almaty, the country’s largest city over the removal of a fuel price cap. Over the week, they set fire to public buildings, stormed city hall, and violently clashed with security forces. But were such large protests all about fuel? Yes and No. For years there has also been anger at the country’s officials and fuel prices were just the straw that broke the camel’s back. In particular, many people were angry at the former president, a man who ruled the country since independence until 2019 and gained the title of “Father of the Nation.” Since “retiring,” he has been the head of the Security Council, leading many to believe that his hand-picked successor Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was nothing more than a puppet and weak leader. But over the last week, Tokayev shed that image. He used the unrest to oust the former president and his allies from power completely, riding off of popular anger at the “old guard.” And despite initially seeming compliant with protester demands, right, like promising to reintroduce price caps for fuel, he quickly 180’d.
The internet was shut off for some time - which actually shows how interconnected the world is, because Kazakhstan is the second-largest producer of Bitcoin, and this shutdown heavily affected its price. But beyond that, the president went as far as ordering troops to shoot protesters. On top of that, he also asked members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization - imagine NATO but of former Soviet countries - to intervene. This has led Russia and five other countries to send over 2,000 troops to help quell the unrest. As of this morning, things have seemingly calmed down. The events reportedly have leftover 100 dead and thousands of arrests have been made. With no evidence, the President blamed the protests on foreign-trained terrorists and said on television, “The militants have not laid down their arms, they continue to commit crimes or are preparing for them. Whoever does not surrender will be destroyed. I have given the order to law enforcement agencies and the army to shoot to kill, without warning.” And this rhetoric was also said in a meeting among CSTO members, with Russian president Vladimir Putin repeating the rhetoric. Putin also promised that no revolutions would happen in CSTO member states, while U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Kazakhstan to respect protesters’ rights to demonstrate. Blinken also warned that it might be hard to get Russian troops to leave Kazakhstan now that they’ve been invited in. Those concerns have led some to ask “Is the Crisis in Kazakhstan the Rebirth of the Soviet Union?” Right, this isn’t the first event in the region that has required interference. Russian troops are now on a peace-keeping mission in Armenia and Azerbaijan, stationed in Kazakhstan, were poised to help Belarusian authorities maintain power, and now amassing on the Ukrainian border. It now remains to be seen what will happen from here, and whether Putin will get some kind of Russian-dominated state or whether one of these Revolutions succeeds.

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Produced by: Cory Ray
Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxwell Enright
Art Department: William Crespo
Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza
Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid
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