The first plane with Russian peacekeepers on board took off for Kazakhstan early on Thursday, as the Central Asian country remains gripped by violent protests provoked by a sharp hike in fuel prices after the New Year.
Footage of the Russian paratroopers embarking on an Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane at Chkalovsky airfield outside Moscow was posted online by the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda television channel.
Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev requested assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), late on Wednesday. The CSTO is a security treaty between six former Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. It runs along similar lines to the US-led NATO bloc. Azerbaijan was an original member of the organization upon its foundation in 1994, but withdrew in 1999.