A state of emergency has been declared on the entire territory of Kazakhstan, the Mir-24 TV Channel reported on Wednesday.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev earlier declared a state of emergency in the Mangistau and Almaty regions and also in Almaty and Nur-Sultan for two weeks amid large-scale protests raging in the country.
Amid the riots, Tokayev assumed the post of the Security Council chairman, replacing the republic’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev, and declared his readiness for tough measures.
Protests have been raging in Kazakhstan for the fourth day in a row. On January 2, crowds took to the streets in the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangistau region in the country’s southwest, protesting against fuel price hikes. Two days later, riots erupted in Almaty (in the country’s southeast) where police used stun grenades to disperse crowds and also in other cities, in particular, in Atyrau and Aktobe (in the west), Uralsk (in the northwest), Taraz, Shymkent and Kyzylorda (in the south), Karaganda (in the northeast) and even in the capital of Nur-Sultan.
