Kazakhstan: state of emergency after protesters storm, torch public buildings amid fuel price rise; president sacks cabinet
- President declares state of emergency and sacks cabinet; 190 people seek medical help, including more than 130 police officers
- Protests in the Central Asian nation have spread following sharp increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices
The Cabinet resigned, but that failed to quell the anger of the demonstrators, who have taken to the streets in response to a fuel price increase from the start of the new year.
Though the unrest was triggered by the price rise, there were signs of broader political demands in a country still under the shadow of three decades of one-man rule.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81, took office as president of the former Soviet republic in 1990 and only stepped down in 2019. He retained authority as ruling party boss and head of a powerful security council.
An Instagram live stream by a Kazakh blogger showed a fire blazing in the mayor’s office of the nation’s biggest city, Almaty, on Wednesday, and gunshots could be heard nearby.
The building was surrounded by protesters who appeared to have broken through security forces’ cordons even though the latter deployed stun grenades whose explosions could be heard throughout the city centre.
The city’s police chief said Almaty was under attack by “extremists and radicals”, who had beaten up 500 civilians and ransacked hundreds of businesses.
A presidential decree announced a two-week state of emergency and nighttime curfew in the capital Nur-Sultan, named after the former president. It cited a “serious and direct security threat to citizens”.
Protests began in the west of the former Soviet republic on Sunday over fuel price increases, leading to the resignation of the government earlier on Wednesday.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government’s resignation after the fuel price increase in the oil-producing Central Asian country triggered violent protests.
Tokayev called for a return to calm in a video posted on Facebook. “The government will not be felled, but we don’t need conflict,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Kazakhstan could solve its own problems and it was important no one interfered from the outside, RIA news agency reported.
Police used tear gas and stun grenades late on Tuesday to drive hundreds of protesters out of the main square in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city. Clashes resumed on Wednesday after the Cabinet resigned.
Reuters saw thousands of protesters pressing ahead towards the centre of Almaty, some of them on a large truck, after security forces failed to disperse them.
Atameken, Kazakhstan’s business lobby group, said its members were reporting cases of attacks on banks, stores and restaurants.
The city health department said 190 people had sought medical help, including 137 police. City authorities urged residents to stay home.
Kazakhstan is a tightly controlled country which cultivates an image of political stability, helping it attract hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment in its oil and metals industries over three decades of independence.
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The protests began after the government lifted price controls on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Many Kazakhs have converted their cars to run on LPG because of its low cost.
Speaking to acting cabinet members, Tokayev ordered them and provincial governors to reinstate price controls on LPG, and broaden them to petrol, diesel and other “socially important” consumer goods.
He also ordered the government to develop a personal bankruptcy law and consider freezing utilities’ prices and subsidising rent payments for poor families.
The authorities declared a state of emergency with a curfew and movement restrictions.
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In addition to replacing the prime minister, Tokayev also appointed a new first deputy head of the National Security Committee who replaced Samat Abish, a nephew of powerful ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Nazarbayev, 81, a Soviet-era Communist Party boss, ran Kazakhstan for almost 30 years before resigning abruptly in 2019 and backing Tokayev as successor.
The protests began in the oil-producing western province of Mangistau on Sunday, after LPG prices more than doubled following the lifting of caps.
A source familiar with the situation said some workers at a Kazakh-Chinese oil-producing joint venture based in the province, were on strike, although this was not affecting output so far.
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Tokayev has said that domestic and foreign provocateurs were behind the violence.
Separately, the interior ministry said that in addition to Almaty, government buildings were attacked in the southern cities of Shymkent and Taraz overnight, with 95 police officers wounded in clashes. Police have detained more than 200 people.
Almaty mayor Bakytzhan Sagintayev said in an address to residents that the situation in the city was under control and security forces were detaining “provocateurs and extremists”.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
