The joint military forces led by Russia have completed the process of withdrawing from Kazakhstan after the end of unprecedented bloody turmoil in the former Soviet country.
“The peacekeeping operation, which was carried out in accordance with the decision of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, has been completed,” said Russian officer Andrei Serdyukov, who commanded those forces, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.
The CSTO is a Russian-led military alliance that includes the former Soviet states of Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The coalition forces began arriving in Kazakhstan on the sixth of January, after an invitation by the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and the withdrawal process began last Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that 4 military planes carrying the rest of the forces left the capital, Nur-Sultan, and Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.
The statement added that “the four planes of the Russian Defense Ministry will bring home the last peacekeeping units led by Colonel Andrei Serdyukov.”
The withdrawal coincided with the end of the Kazakh authorities of the state of emergency across the country after quelling protests over the increase in gas prices.
The unrest escalated rapidly, and the authorities said that the violence left 225 people dead, and blamed it on what they described as bandits and terrorists.