President Tokayev Says Russian-Led Coalition Army Will Withdraw From Kazakhstan In Two Days

CSTO alliance peacekeeping force. (Source: CSTO)

JAKARTA - The Russian-led coalition forces will begin withdrawing from Kazakhstan within two days, after stabilizing the Central Asian country following serious unrest, the president said in a speech on Tuesday.

In a video call with parliament after thwarting what he called an attempted coup, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appointed a new government headed by career civil servant Alikhan Smailov.

In what appeared to be his latest attempt to distance himself from his predecessor, President Tokayev said public discontent over income inequality was justified, that he wanted Nursultan Nazarbayev's colleagues, the former president, to share their wealth.

Many Central Asian analysts believe intra-clan infighting among elites may have played a major role in what was the deadliest violence in the 30 years of the former Soviet Republic's independence from Moscow.

When protesters burned buildings in Almaty's largest city last week, President Tokayev said the former leader Nazarbayev was leaving his post as head of the powerful Security Council.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/The Presidential Press and Information Office)

Nazarbayev, 81, who led the country for nearly three decades and supported Tokayev as his successor, has not appeared in public since.

Thanks to Nazarbayev, "a group of very profitable companies emerged in this country as well as a group of wealthy people even by international standards," President Tokayev told parliament.

"I think it's time for them to pay their dues to the Kazakh people and help them in a systematic and orderly manner," he said, citing Reuters on January 11.

He did not say names, but the list of Kazakhstan's richest people includes several members of the Nazarbayev extended family, including his daughter Dinara with her husband, and the father-in-law of the former president's grandson.

President Tokayev said the financial system was dominated by large business groups based on the principle of everything for friends and law for everyone.

He spoke of initiatives to narrow the wealth gap, raise taxes in the mining sector, and eliminate irregularities in state procurement and areas in which Nazarbayev's associates have business interests.

On the same occasion, President Tokayev also attacked security officials, accusing them of abandoning their posts and allowing protesters to take weapons and sensitive documents.

Protesters set fire to the streets of Kazakhstan. (Wikimedia Commons/Esetok)

He blamed the violence on Islamist radicals and "terrorists" trained abroad. In Tuesday's critique, the National Security Committee, the successor to the Soviet KGB, said he had not only missed the looming threat.

But also failed to act properly during the riots. In some cities, officials have left buildings and left behind firearms and classified documents, he said.

The fact that the Russian-led troops that President Tokayev called on to help stabilize the situation were first deployed to the capital, Nur-Sultan, fueled speculation at the time that their mission was to protect the government and President Tokayev himself, at a time when he could not fully trust his own security forces.

President Tokayev sacked Karim Masimov, then head of the National Security Committee (NSC), on January 5. Masimov was later detained on suspicion of treason.

The day before, he said the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) mission, whose legitimacy and duration was questioned by Washington, which prompted an angry response from Moscow, totaled 2,030 troops and 250 military hardware.

On Tuesday, he said CSTO's main mission had been successfully completed. The coalition of forces will begin a gradual withdrawal in two days and withdraw altogether in 10.

Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in defending Kazakhstan from what he describes as a foreign-backed terrorist insurgency.

To note, Kazakh authorities say order has been largely restored in the country of 19 million, with nearly 10,000 people having been detained over the unrest, while another chase is ongoing.