Russian troops arrive in Kazakhstan, as dozens of protesters killed, thousands arrested

Russia sent paratroopers to Kazakhstan to help its government end mass protests there.

Russian paratrooper units have begun arriving in Kazakhstan to help its president end mass protests in the Central Asian country, as security forces there said they have killed dozens of protesters overnight amid violent clashes.

The Russian troops are deploying as part of a joint force from a Russian-led military alliance of former Soviet countries, after Kazakhstan’s president appealed late Wednesday for help putting down the protests that have spread across the country. President Kassym-Jopart Tokayev made the request after a mob of protesters stormed the mayor’s office in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, and overran the airport.

Small numbers of Russian paratrooper units landed at an airbase in Kazakhstan, with Russian state media showing the soldiers disembarking from transport planes and off-loading armored vehicles. The number of Russian troops was unclear, but it was estimated from several hundred to a few thousand, alongside several hundred from Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia that were also due to arrive.

The Russian-led alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), said it was deploying what it called a “peacekeeping” mission to help Kazakhstan’s government restore order. The organization said the forces’ main tasks would be “protecting important state and military facilities, and assisting Kazakh law enforcement in stabilising the situation."