Russian Foreign Ministry prepares lists of Russians willing to leave Kazakhstan amid protests

Photo: Vasily Krestyaninov / AP

The Russian Embassy in Nur-Sultan opened a crisis headquarters to evacuate Russians who were stuck in the country due to riots and wished to leave Kazakhstan. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Now the department is processing requests from compatriots and preparing the relevant documents for organizing their departure. “We continue to clarify the lists and places of their residence in order to further resolve the issue of their return to their homeland,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The diplomats recalled that for those Russians who want to evacuate who live in the Almaty region, on January 9, from 17.00 to 18.00 local time (from 14.00 to 15.00 Moscow time), special flights of transport aircraft of the Ministry of Defense will be carried out. They will head from Almaty to Ivanovo and Orenburg.

“The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Nur-Sultan has asked the country's authorities to assist Russian citizens with passport and customs control during departure,” the ministry said.

At the same time, as REN TV clarifies, the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Nur-Sultan suspended reception of citizens until January 19 due to the introduction of an emergency regime in the country. Russians are advised to contact the embassy's hotline.

Protests in Kazakhstan began on Sunday, January 2, due to an increase in gas prices for cars from 60 to 120 tenge (from 10 to 20 rubles) per liter. Soon economic demands were replaced by political ones: the resignation of the government, the holding of new elections, consideration of the issue of lustration of people from the “clan” of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

By Wednesday, January 5, the rallies had escalated into riots. In Alma-Ata, shops, banks were looted, the airport building, police stations, government agencies and infrastructure facilities were seized. The army was sent to suppress the demonstrations. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed to the CSTO with a request to send troops to defend the country from armed bands.

Later it became known that employees of the National Security Committee (KNB) of Kazakhstan could be behind the organization of pogroms and attacks on state institutions. The former head of the department, Karim Massimov, was detained on suspicion of high treason.