Washington demands Moscow to withdraw its soldiers “quickly” from Kazakhstan

INA-  sources

Washington demands Moscow to withdraw its soldiers “quickly” from Kazakhstan
 
Yesterday, Tuesday, the United States called on Russia to “quickly” withdraw the soldiers it sent to Kazakhstan to help the Central Asian country restore security after the violent riots it witnessed and prompted its President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to request this militIG support.
 
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the United States welcomes the return of calm to Kazakhstan after last week’s violence, which the former Soviet republic has not seen since its independence in 1991.
 
“We also welcome the announcement by President Tokayev that the CSTO peacekeeping forces have accomplished their mission,” Price added.
 
The Moscow-led organization sent a multinational peacekeeping force of 2,000, mostly Russians, to Kazakhstan to help government forces restore security in the country.
 
“As long as the CSTO forces do not withdraw, we will continue to call on them to respect human rights and their commitment to withdraw quickly from Kazakhstan at the request of the Kazakh government,” Price stressed.
 
On Tuesday, the President of Kazakhstan announced that the withdrawal of the peacekeeping force would begin within two days and would be “gradual” and would be completed within ten days at most.
 
However, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the withdrawal of this force will take place as soon as the situation “fully stabilizes” and “based on the decision of the Kazakh authorities.”
 
US SecretIG of State Anthony Blinken angered Moscow last week by saying that “once the Russians have you, it is sometimes difficult to persuade them to leave.”
 
 
 
The Kazakh authorities considered the unrest that erupted last week after a peaceful demonstration to protest against the hike in gas prices in the west of the country as a “coup attempt”, with “foreign terrorists” behind it.
 
Dozens of people were killed during these violence, hundreds of others were injured, while the authorities arrested about 10,000 people.