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Activist Arshak Makichyan holding a solo protest against the deployment of troops to Kazakhstan by the monument to Kazakh poet Abai Kunanbayev in Moscow / photo provided by the activist
At the beginning of 2022, after a rise in gas prices in Kazakhstan, mass protests broke out, escalating into clashes with security forces and unrest. On 5 January, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for military intervention to suppress the protests and clashes. Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan responded to the call.
During the social and political protests, riots and their suppression, several hundred people were killed, mostly civilians, and several thousand were injured. In Russia, the response to the events in the neighbouring country varied: there were solidarity rallies with the protesters and solo pickets against the deployment of Russian troops. National Bolsheviks called for the annexation of northern Kazakhstan.