Aigul Kuspan: We are grateful to our CSTO allies for the prompt decision to send a peacekeeping mission to Kazakhstan

“We are grateful to our allies, the CSTO Member States, and I would like to take this opportunity, dear colleagues, to thank the parliaments of the CSTO Member States represented by you for their prompt decision to send their servicemen to Kazakhstan as part of the CSTO peacekeeping mission,” said Aigul Kuspan, Chairwoman of the Committee on International Affairs, Defence and Security of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, speaking remotely at the meeting of the chairpersons of foreign affairs committees (commissions) of the parliaments of the Member States of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Aigul Kuspan drew the attention of participants of the meeting to the consequences and scale of the tragedy in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the first days of January. For instance, noted the Chairwoman of the Committee on International Affairs, Defence and Security of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, according to the data of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, during the riots 4,578 people were injured and 225 were killed, including 19 law enforcement officers. Preliminary economic losses amounted to about 100 billion tenge. Aigul Kuspan stressed that after the January events Kazakhstan “has embarked on a new course of action to ensure the safety and better quality of life for the people of Kazakhstan, including by improving the welfare of citizens, eliminating the income gap, creating jobs and curbing inflation.”
“Currently, a special national security reform is under way; national security and intelligence agencies will be reorganized. To ensure the defence capability of the Armed Forces, the command of the Special Operations Forces has been established,” the parliamentarian said, stressing that “the situation in the country, as I said before our meeting, is now under control and has stabilized. A pre-trial investigation into the organizers of the January events and the people suspected of committing particularly grave crimes has been launched.”
Speaking about the situation in the region overall, Aigul Kuspan drew the meeting participants’ attention to the situation in Afghanistan, recalling that the situation in this country becomes particularly important. “According to experts, by mid-2022, already this year, Afghanistan may become a country of universal poverty, and 97 per cent of the population will be poor, while the country’s economy could lose a third of its GDP within a year.
In these circumstances, the probability of a large flow of refugees from Afghanistan into Central Asia increases. And the Central Asian states’ task is to prevent militants and adherents of radical religious movements from entering the region,” said the Chairwoman of the Committee on International Affairs, Defence and Security of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.