Tokayev, Kassym-Jomart

In Kazakh Uprising, Reports of Widespread Abuses by Security Forces

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Around 7:30 p.m. on the evening of Jan. 6, Yerlan Zhagiparov left his home to see what was happening nearby at the city’s Republic Square, a center of mass political protests. At 7:54 p.m., Mr. Zhagiparov, 49, called a close friend to say he had been apprehended by the National Guard. The […]

Nearly 6,000 Detained Amid Unrest in Kazakhstan

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — At least 5,800 people have been detained and more than 2,000 injured during several days of violence last week in Kazakhstan, government officials said on Sunday, after protests ignited by a fuel price hike set off a political crisis and prompted the president to seek help from a Russia-led security alliance to […]

Amid Crisis, Kazakhstan’s Leader Chose His Path: Embrace Russia

MOSCOW — The embattled president of Kazakhstan has the pedigree of an international technocrat. The son of prominent intellectuals, he studied in Moscow at a premier academy for diplomats, and later worked in the Soviet Embassy in Beijing. He served as a key adviser to the strongman who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country as […]

Kazakhstan Protests Lead President to Crack Down: ‘Fire Without Warning’

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The authoritarian leader of Kazakhstan said Friday that he had authorized the nation’s security forces to “fire without warning” as the government moved to bring an end to two days of chaos and violence after peaceful protests descended into scenes of anarchy. “We hear calls from abroad for the parties to negotiate […]

In Kazakhstan, Putin Again Seizes on Unrest to Try to Expand Influence

Long adept at stoking unrest in the West, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent troops to the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan on Thursday to try to extinguish the latest in a series of dangerous fires to engulf the lands of the former Soviet Union, territory that Moscow views as its own sphere of […]

After dozens are reported dead in Kazakhstan, troops from a Russian alliance begin to deploy.

Protestors filled the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, on Wednesday night.Credit…Abduaziz Madyarov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images All night and into the early hours on Thursday, young men roamed the streets of Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, flanked by flames and buttressed by barricades. As stun grenades exploded and tear gas wafted in the air, demonstrators […]

Kazakh Protesters Burn Government Offices as Unrest Sweeps Country

Speaking by phone from Aktau, on the Caspian Sea, he said that “people don’t have any political intermediaries who would solve problems that exist in the country.” Nevertheless, he said, in a country where the average salary is $570 a month — and where many earn considerably less than that — economic resentments are not […]

Kazakhstan Declares State of Emergency as Protests Over Fuel Prices Spread

MOSCOW — The president of Kazakhstan declared a two-week state of emergency in two regions of the Central Asian country early Wednesday after nationwide protests erupted over rising fuel prices. In Almaty, the country’s largest city, police fired tear gas and stun grenades at crowds of thousands of people who had refused to disperse, as […]