Kazakhstan’s President Gives Security Forces Order to Shoot to Kill Without Warning

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he had ordered the police and army to shoot without warning and signaled a broader crackdown against opponents as his security forces, backed by Russian troops, moved to restore control after days of unrest triggered by a fuel-price increase.

He said his government had largely restored order and told a meeting of security chiefs Friday that what he called a counterterrorism operation would continue “until the full liquidation of the militants,” who he said were still using weapons. “Law enforcement agencies and the army were given an order by me to shoot at terrorists to kill without warning,” he said, following the arrival of Russian troops to support his government.

The authoritarian leaders of Central Asia’s former Soviet republics have used the term “terrorist” to describe protesters of various stripes. Mr. Tokayev said authorities were battling domestic and foreign “bandits and terrorists” who were armed and trained. He blamed rights defenders, activists and mass media for fomenting protests.

Calls for talks were nonsense, he said. “What talks can there be with criminals, killers?”

“That is why they need to be liquidated. And that will be done in the nearest time,” he said. Mr. Tokayev didn’t provide evidence for his claim of foreign involvement in the unrest.

This week’s protests were triggered by fuel-price increases that took effect at the beginning of the year and turned into a broader wave of frustration over the country’s economy and closely controlled political system. Kazakh authorities say armed groups have attempted to seize government buildings. Dozens of people have been killed, according to authorities, including law-enforcement officers.

The most significant disorder appeared to have taken place in Almaty, the largest city, where residents reported hearing gunfire Friday and seeing stores that had been looted, their windows smashed.

Troops from Russia and other countries in a regional security alliance had begun arriving to help guard strategic buildings “for a limited period of time,” Mr. Tokayev said. A presidential adviser said the troops wouldn’t be directly involved in putting down the protests, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Russian and Kazakh forces had taken control of Almaty airport, a spokesman for the Russian military said.

In his address, Mr. Tokayev thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his “very rapid and, most importantly, warm and comradely reaction to my request” for troops.

About 2,500 troops would be sent from the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, a number that could be reinforced, the group’s secretary-general, Stanislav Zas, told Russian state news agency RIA. Russia’s Defense Ministry said nine transport planes carrying Russian paratroopers and equipment arrived in Almaty on Friday.

Washington is closely monitoring for potential human rights violations as the clampdown continues, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the U.S. government was trying to learn more about the involvement of Russian-led CSTO troops in quelling the unrest.

“It would seem to me that the Kazakh authorities and government certainly have the capacity to deal appropriately with the protests,” Mr. Blinken told reporters. “It’s not clear why they feel the need for outside assistance, so we’re trying to learn more about it.”

He resisted comparisons with Russian troop movements near the Ukrainian border: “I would not conflate these situations.

“Having said that, I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”

It is the first time troops from the CSTO security bloc have been deployed in this way, indicating the importance Mr. Putin places on shoring up stability on the southern edges of the former Soviet Union as he tries to slow what he calls the West’s advance toward Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, where Russia traditionally holds sway.

The Russian leader has massed tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine, which is seeking closer ties with the West. Mr. Putin has demanded that the U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies forswear any expansion east toward Russia’s borders, in what is turning into a significant security challenge for the Biden administration. Moscow and Washington have agreed to hold talks on the issue next week.

Mr. Zas, the CSTO secretary-general, said that the group had responded to a call for help from Kazakh authorities and that forces would be there for a few days or weeks, depending on the situation.

“Distortions have been circulating about some kind of invasion or something else, even as much as an ‘occupation,’” Mr. Zas said. “That, excuse me, is complete nonsense.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent Mr. Tokayev a verbal message Friday saying he “resolutely opposes external forces deliberately creating turmoil and instigating a ‘color revolution’ in Kazakhstan,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said. “Color revolution,” is a phrase used by Russian and Chinese authorities to describe popular revolts that they say are orchestrated by the U.S. and its allies.

Kazakh authorities raised the terrorism threat level across the country to “critical red,” TASS reported, allowing security services to carry out checks on people and vehicles and to restrict traffic. Law-enforcement officers had put up 70 checkpoints across the country, TASS cited the Kazakh Interior Ministry as saying.

Residents in Almaty said they continued to hear gunfire and were scared to leave their homes for fear of being caught up in violence, while TASS reported that the sound of shooting could still be heard Friday evening though it had grown less intense.

An adviser to Mr. Tokayev told state television that protesters twice tried to enter a television tower in Almaty overnight, Russian news agency Interfax reported. The tower, located near the popular Kok Tobe park on a plateau overlooking the city, is at the city’s highest point and broadcasts across Almaty.

Ainur, who lives with her husband and extended family near the Kok Tobe area, said she heard gunshots overnight.

“All through the night there were shots, like from a machine gun,” she said, using her first name only. “We can still hear it.”

She said that stores were running out of supplies and that one near her house had neither milk nor bread and only took cash.

“Thank God we had some money on us to buy a few things,” she said.

Bilal, another resident of Almaty, said all the city’s stores and shops throughout the city had been raided or destroyed.

“All the pawnshops, even the notary, almost anywhere that might have any money and wasn’t protected by a metal screen, the windows were completely broken out,” he said. “The store windows that haven’t been broken, you can see the boot marks on them from people trying to break them down.”

Bilal said residents ventured outside only in large groups for fear of being caught up in the violence among the protesters or the security services.

“No one dares to walk outside alone,” he said. “Everyone walks in groups, even cars that drive through the city, everyone travels in large groups even to go and buy groceries.”