Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov sees as effective and heroic the actions of Kazakh law enforcement amid unrest in the country.
"Why was it possible to quickly de-escalate tensions and ward off this main threat <…> of simply fully losing control in some major cities, first of all in Almaty? Of course, this was due to efficient actions by Kazakh law enforcement and their heroic actions," Peskov said in reply to journalists’ questions on Monday. However, casualties could not be avoided, he noted.
The situation was brought under control quickly also due "to the assistance that was rendered through the CSTO at the request of Kazakhstan," TASS cited him as saying.
These actions were coordinated, he stressed. "You know that the heads of state and government repeatedly exchanged phone calls in the difficult first days. As for our president [Vladimir Putin], we reported then that he had held a long telephone call both with President [of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart] Tokayev and with all his colleagues in the organization," Peskov reiterated.
When asked whether Putin planned to travel to Kazakhstan as it had been the case when some emergencies occurred in Russia, Peskov dismissed this question as "inappropriate." "Kazakhstan is a sovereign state that is now going through a thorny point of time." "President Tokayev characterized this point as the most difficult in the 30-year-long history of independent Kazakhstan," Peskov added.
