Dozens Reported Dead in Kazakhstan, as Russian Alliance Sends Troops

A revolt inspired by anger over a surge in fuel prices has since spread across the country. A Russia-led military alliance has sent troops to help quell the violence in what it described as a temporary peacekeeping effort.

MOSCOW — A Russia-led military alliance began deploying paratroopers in Kazakhstan on Thursday as part of a peacekeeping operation after a night of protests in the Central Asian country turned violent, with the police reporting that dozens of anti-government demonstrators had been killed and hundreds injured.

The peacekeeping effort, organized by a group that is Russia’s version of NATO, will be limited in time and will aim at protecting government buildings and military objects, the body said in a statement. It did not specify how many soldiers would be mobilized. Some troops have already started operating in Kazakhstan, the statement said.

Saltanat Azirbek, a police spokeswoman in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, said that dozens of people had been killed by the authorities when they tried to storm government buildings, police headquarters and district police offices, the first widespread fatalities since the protests started. That announcement came after earlier reports in the local news media that the police had opened fire on demonstrators in the oil city of Atyrau, killing at least one person.