The organization’s peacekeepers will be able to stay in Kazakhstan until the situation stabilizes. Interfax reports with reference to the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov.
The day before, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Nikol Pashinyan, in connection with the appeal of the President of Kazakhstan, decided to send the collective peacekeeping forces of the CSTO to the republic in order to stabilize and normalize the situation.
According to official data, the total number of the CSTO peacekeeping forces is about 3,600 people.
The units are designed to participate in the CSTO peacekeeping operations. To recruit the peacekeeping forces, member states of the organization, in accordance with national legislation, allocate peacekeeping contingents on a permanent basis.
According to the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov, the CSTO peacekeeping forces «will be able to stay in Kazakhstan as long as the leader of the republic considers necessary.» He also believes that «cleansing and everything that is happening now is being done not by the CSTO, but by local forces.»
The CSTO will basically only ensure the security of facilities, infrastructure, and so on.
Leonid Kalashnikov
The CSTO includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
A petition was launched on Change.org website against deployment of CSTO peacekeeping troops in Kazakhstan.
