The president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart
Tokayev, accused his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev of having favored the creation of "a class of people rich even by international standards
".
Tokayev also announced that the approximately 2,000 soldiers of the CSTO, the military alliance led by Russia and which includes six former Soviet republics, will begin skiing the country in two days. "The peacekeeping mission has been successfully completed," Tokayev said, stating that the withdrawal will last about ten days. The president had asked the countries of the Collective Security Treaty (CSTO) led by Moscow to send soldiers to help him regain control of the situation.
China supports Russian-led military forces in Kazakhstan to help the country quell unrest: Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in a phone call yesterday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said that Beijing supports President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev , according to which the source of the unrest was terrorist activity.
China and Russia, according to a note released today in Beijing, should "oppose external forces that interfere with the internal affairs of Central Asian countries" and prevent the "color revolutions" and the "three forces of evil (separatism, terrorism and extremism, ed) cause chaos ".