Putin claims victory in defending Kazakhstan from revolt

MOSCOW JAN 10 REUTERS-RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin claimed victory, Monday in defending Kazakhstan from what he described as a foreign-backed terrorist uprising, and promised leaders of other ex-soviet states that a Moscow-led alliance would protect them too.

Putin told a virtual summit of the CSTO military alliance of ex-soviet states that the body had managed to “prevent the undermining of the foundations of the state, the complete degradation of the internal situation in Kazakhstan, and block terrorists, criminals, looters and other criminal elements.”

Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty returned to near-normal on Monday after nearly a week of unrest, by far the worst violence in the 30-year independent history of what had been the most stable former Soviet state in Central Asia.

Shops reopened, public transport and regular traffic returned, and the internet was switched back on for several hours in the city, for the first time since last Wednesday.

Putin sent paratroopers last week to protect strategic facilities after antigovernment protesters ransacked and torched public buildings. Dozens of people are believed to have been killed in clashes between security forces and demonstrators in cities across the country.

Both Russia and Kazakhstan have portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed insurrection, although they have not said who they blame for organizing it.

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-jomart Tokayev told the summit his country had weathered “an attempted coup d’etat”.

“Under the guise of spontaneous protests, a wave of unrest broke out,” he said.“it became clear that the main goal was to undermine the constitutional order and to seize power.”