Russia Readies more than 75 Transport Planes as Troops Pour Into Kazakhstan
Russia sent fresh reinforcements into Kazakhstan on Sunday, deploying troops to help authorities reassert control in the country’s biggest cities following days of sometimes violent protests against its leadership. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had prepared a contingent of more than 75 transport planes to allow for continuous deployment of troops into the country. The number sent in would likely be around 2,500, but could go higher, Russian state news agency RIA said last week.
The protests, which started off as rallies against rising fuel prices, snowballed over the past week into a deadly standoff between government forces and armed demonstrators, some of whom looted banks and stores. More than 160 people have died in violence around the protests, including more than 100 in the country’s biggest city of Almaty, Russian news agencies cited Kazakhstan’s health ministry as saying.
The mission is the first for the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the former Soviet Union’s answer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and shows the extent to which Mr. Putin has successfully leveraged his military modernization over the past decade into a diplomatic tool to maintain influence over the former Soviet space.
Video footage distributed by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday footage showed troops loading armored personnel carriers and military transport vehicles onto planes in Moscow and landing at airfields near Almaty, where they deployed onward or carried out tactical military exercises with their Kazakh counterparts at the airport, the Defense Ministry said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “Once Russians are in your house, sometimes it’s very hard to get them to leave.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-readies-scores-of-transport-planes-as-troops-pour-into-kazakhstan-11641733219
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