“The number of adventurers trying to secure oil and uranium…the essence is interference in foreign internal affairs”
CSTO-level dispatch of the former Soviet security alliance… “All five countries send 2,500 people”
Kazakhstan (AP = Yonhap News) Russian peacekeepers disembark from a military plane arriving at an airport in Kazakhstan, where a state of emergency has been declared following massive anti-government protests on the 6th (local time). The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a security consultative body of former Soviet countries, dispatched peacekeeping forces including Russian and Belarusian soldiers to the site at the request of the Kazakhstan government. Russia, leading the CSTO, sent airborne troops. [러시아 RU-RTR TV 영상 캡처]. 2022.1.7 leekm@yna.co.kr
(Moscow, Seoul = Yonhap News) Correspondent Yoo Cheol-jong, Correspondent Lee Eui-jin = The former Soviet bloc’s peacekeeping force dispatched to Kazakhstan, where anti-government protests intensified, included Russian paratroopers.
This dispatch was made at the level of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CST0), a security consultative body of former Soviet countries led by Russia.
Considered a weaker version of the Warsaw Pact, a security alliance of the former Soviet bloc, this organization has never dispatched a peacekeeping force since its establishment in 2002.
According to the British weekly The Economist, Kyrgyzstan, a member of the CSTO, requested support from the CSTO when anti-establishment protests continued in 2010, but Russia refused to intervene at the time.
With the CSTO dispatched to 2,500 people, the first Russian troops arrived on the 6th and started the operation.
The CSTO peacekeeping force included soldiers from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Russia and Belarus, which lead the CSTO, are known to have dispatched paratroopers, but did not disclose the exact size of the dispatch.
However, considering that Armenia is known to have dispatched 100 men, Kyrgyzstan 150, and Tajikistan 100-200, it seems that the Russian paratroopers actually formed the core of the peacekeeping force.
The peacekeeping force was also commanded by General Andrei Serdukov, commander of the Russian paratroopers.
Almaty (Archyde.com = Yonhap News) Soldiers are deployed in the city square in Almaty, the economic center of Kazakhstan, where a state of emergency was declared due to protests once morest rising prices on the 6th (local time). 2022.1.6 sungok@yna.co.kr
CSTO spokeswoman Vladimir Zaynetdinov said on the 7th (local time) that “the number of peacekeepers so far is 2,500, but more might be increased if necessary.”
Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shuhrat Nourishev said on the same day that 2,500 peacekeepers would be deployed to the country, saying that the presence of the peacekeepers would be temporary for days or weeks.
Kazakhstan’s President’s Office said earlier that the peacekeepers would not engage in counter-terrorism operations to suppress protesters or shoot people, stressing that they would only perform security duties at key national facilities.
Archyde.com analyzed that Russia’s deployment of troops was a risky move to protect its interests related to oil and uranium produced in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan is the world’s number one uranium supplier and accounts for more than 40% of the world’s uranium production.
Russia’s action this time is clearly an intervention in foreign internal affairs, and there are also analyzes that Russia is trying to show off its national power and expand its influence in neighboring regions.
Dmitry Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, told Axios, an internet media outlet in the US, that “this dispatch of troops to Russia is a particularly difficult task.” I intervened in a crisis situation.”
He cited Belarus, where the pro-Russian regime came into power following Russian intervention in the anti-government protests in 2020, as an example, and predicted that “Russian President Vladimir Putin will be able to turn a crisis into an opportunity.”
ALMATI (AFP=Yonhap News) Smoke rises from a government building in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, on the 5th (local time) by protesters protesting soaring fuel prices. Since the beginning of the New Year in Kazakhstan, large-scale protests once morest major inflation, including fuel prices, have spread across the country. 2022.1.6 leekm@yna.co.kr
Russia has sent peacekeeping forces several times to separatist and territorial disputes in the former Soviet Union, but it is evaluated that it is unusual to send troops to suppress anti-government protests.
According to an agreement signed with Moldova, an Eastern European country, in 1992, thousands of troops were stationed in Trinsnistria (Russian name: Friednestroviye), a separatist region of Moldova, as a peacekeeper.
Thousands of peacekeepers have also been stationed in the conflict between the Georgian government and the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.
After Abkhazia, where more than 70% of the population was of Russian descent, was incorporated into Georgia, the Georgian government implemented a Georgian immigration policy in the region, which intensified ethnic conflict.
When civil war broke out in 1991 when Abkhazia declared an autonomous republic, Russia dispatched troops to prevent the civil war from escalating.
Russia decided to deploy regarding 2,000 peacekeepers over the next five years, saying it would prevent clashes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a conflict zone between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020.
However, it is rare for Russia to send peacekeeping forces to citizens who expressed antipathy to the government outside of territorial and ethnic conflicts in the former Soviet Union, as in this measure.
ALMATY (AFP=Yonhap News) Protests once morest soaring fuel prices take place in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, on the 5th (local time). Since the beginning of the New Year in Kazakhstan, large-scale protests once morest major inflation, including fuel prices, have spread across the country. 2022.1.6 leekm@yna.co.kr
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