Qatar - Russia announces withdrawal of troops from kazakhstan

Doha: The Russian Defense Ministry announced today that the Russian peacekeeping forces, operating within the forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), have left kazakhstan.

The ministry said, in a statement, that the forces loaded their equipment onto Il-76 and An-24 transport planes and took off from Alma Ata airport to the permanent deployment point.

The Russian defense Ministry had announced earlier, the departure of the first batch of its troops.

On Wednesday, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the start of the withdrawal of the Russian 'peacekeeping' forces affiliated with the Collective Security Treaty Organization from kazakhstan.

Russia, at the request of President Tokayev, sent troops to kazakhstan, in conjunction with the countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, to participate in controlling the situation exacerbated by the popular protests that erupted after the government raised fuel prices, which led to the spread of bloody violence, and clashes between citizens and security forces across the country.

It is expected that the withdrawal of the remaining forces, which came from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, will take ten days.

The protests in kazakhstan, according to the media, resulted in the killing of nearly 160 people, the injury of two thousand, and the arrest of eight thousand.

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