The events in Kazakhstan were an attempt to interfere in internal affairs from outside - the country was faced with international terrorism rather than protests, participants in Monday's extraordinary meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council, held via video conference.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, head of the republic, called what happened a coup attempt, Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled the "color revolutions," and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko recalled the recent "combined onslaught" on his country.
TASS compiled the key statements made at the meeting.
Reasons for the incident
Events in Kazakhstan, which became the worst crisis in its thirty-year history of independence, were prepared for a long time, Tokayev said. He promised later to present the world community with the evidence of preparation of the terrorist attack on the republic.
The president stressed that the initial socio-economic and socio-political demands of the protesters quickly "took second or third place" and the hot phase of the crisis began after they were met: "groups of armed militants," including foreign ones, entered into action whose aim was to "undermine the constitutional order, destroy the institutions of government, and seize power".
Putin agreed with Tokayev's assessment - according to him, the threat to the statehood of his neighbor was "not at all caused by spontaneous protest actions against fuel prices but by the fact that destructive internal and external forces took advantage of the situation". The deployment of CSTO peacekeepers in the republic showed that CSTO members will not allow "to unbalance the situation at home" and to implement scenarios of "color revolutions," said the Russian leader.
Lukashenko, speaking of the events in Kazakhstan, recalled the fate of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as the "combined onslaught" against Belarus. At the same time, he stressed that "behind all external factors, one should see internal ones as well".
Assessment of the reaction and the situation in Kazakhstan
The constitutional order in Kazakhstan has been restored, the head of the republic said, including thanks to the prompt reaction of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. According to him, it was their arrival that helped repel the attack on Almaty.
Participants of the meeting agreed that the CSTO peacekeeping mechanism demonstrated its effectiveness and relevance: "It really works and is capable of fulfilling its tasks," as Secretary-General Stanislav Zas said. According to him, there are no problems in Kazakhstan that "require a solution at the level of the heads of state".
Zas himself is planning to go to Kazakhstan on Tuesday to examine the situation on the ground and meet with the commander of the peacekeeping mission, Andrei Serdyukov, and the republic's leaders.
Tokayev said he intends to submit proposals to parliament on January 11 for a new government, which was dismissed amid protests, and to set "specific tasks for solving acute problems in the socio-economic sphere."
Conclusions of the leaders
Putin reminded that the events in Kazakhstan are "not the first and far from the last" attempt to interfere in the affairs of the member states from outside, so it is necessary to "think about the improvement of decision-making procedures [regarding] the use of joint forces." He also suggested that the secretaries of the security councils be instructed to submit proposals to jointly repel attempts at outside interference.
Tokayev called for optimizing the CSTO's response time to crisis situations like the one that occurred in his country.
Lukashenko said it was necessary to be "proactive", including in the information field, where CSTO peacekeepers are already being presented as "occupiers". In his opinion, if we do not learn lessons from the events in Kazakhstan, similar events can be repeated in other post-Soviet countries, especially in Uzbekistan (which seceded from the CSTO in 2012).
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon called for strengthening the joint fight against terrorism and recalled that he had repeatedly warned of sleeper cells of militants in Central Asia. He again drew attention to problems that have long preoccupied Dushanbe, including the situation in neighboring Afghanistan.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS