Efforts on to organise CSTO summit over situation in Kazakhstan

Armenia is taking steps to organise Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit on the situsation in Kazakhstan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on phone in this regard. Armenia is the current chair of CSTO. The summit is being planned to be online.  CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance that includes ex-Soviet states. 

Earlier, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Armenia discussed the situation in Kazakhstan. 

The parties noted progress of the overall situation towards normalisation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Saturday discussed restoring "order" in Kazakhstan following days of violence and unrest as several high-profile officials were detained on suspicion of treason.

Also Read | Kazakhstan’s former head of national security intelligence held for treason

Hundreds of citizens and military personnel were injured and killed in the Kazakh city of Almaty during the recent riots. Kazakh President Kassym -Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency until January 19 over the civil unrest in the country and invited the CSTO peacekeeping forces to help bring the situation under control. The CSTO troops have already arrived in the Central Asia nation.

Also Read | Putin, Kazakh leader Tokayev discuss measures to ‘restore order’ in Kazakhstan

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's former head of security intelligence was arrested on suspicions of treason on Saturday (January 8). 

Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, or KNB, in a statement on Saturday said that its former chief Karim Masimov – who was fired earlier this week—was detained, along with several other officials.

It refused to provide any further details on the nature of offences committed by Masimov.

(With inputs from agencies)