From January 6 through January 19, Russia and its allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) conducted a successful stabilization mission in Kazakhstan, at the latter country’s urgent request. The organization’s member states (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) may, under their treaty, undertake collective peacekeeping operations on CSTO members’ territories.
Collective in name but largely Russian in practice, this was the CSTO’s first real-world mission. Under the “peacekeeping” label, it assisted Kazakhstan’s authorities to quell mass-scale social protests that degenerated into deadly violence and seemed about to turn insurrectionary (in the proper sense of that word). The disorders that started on January 2 had, by January 5, engulfed several provinces and major cities, culminating in the largest city, Almaty.
Russian-Led Mission in Kazakhstan Unveils New Peacekeeping Model (Part One) – Jamestown
