A Russian-led military bloc will begin withdrawing its troops from Kazakhstan in two days' time after fulfilling its main mission of stabilising the Central Asian country, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Tuesday.
Addressing the government and parliament in a videoconference call that was broadcast live, Mr Tokayev promised to conduct reforms, rein in inflation and boost wages.
He told MPs he was appointing a veteran public servant, Alikhan Smailov, as prime minister. MPs swiftly voted him in during a session broadcast live on state TV.
Mr Smailov, 49, served as first deputy prime minister in the previous Cabinet, which Mr Tokayev dismissed last week amid violent clashes in the oil-rich country.
The president also ordered the central bank and the financial regulator to ensure foreign exchange market stability to build confidence in Kazakhstan's tenge currency.
Kazakhstan and Russia have framed last week's unrest, which grew out of peaceful protests against an energy price rise, as a coup attempt assisted by foreign “terrorists”, but have provided little evidence to support the claim.
Following a request from Mr Tokayev, the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation sent troops to restore order.
On Tuesday, Mr Tokayev announced that what he called “a phased withdrawal” would begin in two days and take “no more than 10 days".
“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” he said.
Kazakhstan's security forces have detained 9,900 people over the unrest, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
The CSTO mission of more than 2,000 troops was sent at the peak of the crisis last week, after armed clashes between opponents of the government and Kazakhstan's security forces rendered parts of Almaty — the country's largest city — almost unrecognisable.
The decision to send troops as peacekeepers was a first for the CSTO, which is often presented by Moscow as a Nato equivalent. But the organisation has been reluctant to interfere in Central Asia, a region with long historical ties to Russia.
Concern has mounted that Moscow could leverage the mission to shore up its influence in Kazakhstan.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned last week that “once Russians are in your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave".
The crisis has laid bare infighting at the very top of the Kazakh government.
Mr Tokayev's mentor, founding president Nursultan Nazarbayev, has yet to appear publicly since the unrest began, despite Mr Nazarbayev's aide claiming that the strongman, 81, was in the capital Nur-Sultan and in dialogue with Mr Tokayev.
Former National Security Committee chief Karim Masimov - a key Nazarbayev ally viewed by many as perpetuating the retired president's influence over government - was arrested on Saturday.
Mr Tokayev appeared to have further bolstered his position, backing Mr Smailov to take on the job of prime minister permanently — a nomination that won the unanimous support of legislators on Tuesday.
The president also blamed the committee formerly controlled by Masimov for deserting Kazakhstan's cities during the crisis.
“Despite a sufficient military arsenal, without engaging in battle, they left the buildings, leaving weapons and secret documents there,” Mr Tokayev said, pledging to reform Kazakhstan's security structures to make the “defence of citizens” their top priority.
“A terrorist war was unleashed against our country. The enemy showed extreme cruelty and readiness to take any steps. He sowed fear among the population in order to suppress even the very idea of resistance,” Mr Tokayev said.
“We could have lost the country.”
Many residents of Almaty welcomed the CSTO as a stabilising force after spending several days inside as gunfire echoed across the city.
Roza Matayeva, 45, an English-language teacher, became used to tuning into her radio during a five-day internet power cut in Kazakhstan's financial hub. The power cut ended briefly on Monday morning before the city of 1.8 million went offline again at lunchtime.
It was the news that the Moscow-led bloc had agreed to Mr Tokayev's request to send troops that gave her belief that a corner was being turned.
“That brought relief and hope that the situation will be decided for the best in the near future,” she told AFP.
“I welcome cooperation with Russia. I think there is no threat to our sovereignty.”
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The Details
Kabir Singh
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BOSH!'s pantry essentials
Nutritional yeast
This is Firth's pick and an ingredient he says, "gives you an instant cheesy flavour". He advises making your own cream cheese with it or simply using it to whip up a mac and cheese or wholesome lasagne. It's available in organic and specialist grocery stores across the UAE.
Seeds
"We've got a big jar of mixed seeds in our kitchen," Theasby explains. "That's what you use to make a bolognese or pie or salad: just grab a handful of seeds and sprinkle them over the top. It's a really good way to make sure you're getting your omegas."
Umami flavours
"I could say soya sauce, but I'll say all umami-makers and have them in the same batch," says Firth. He suggests having items such as Marmite, balsamic vinegar and other general, dark, umami-tasting products in your cupboard "to make your bolognese a little bit more 'umptious'".
Onions and garlic
"If you've got them, you can cook basically anything from that base," says Theasby. "These ingredients are so prevalent in every world cuisine and if you've got them in your cupboard, then you know you've got the foundation of a really nice meal."
Your grain of choice
Whether rice, quinoa, pasta or buckwheat, Firth advises always having a stock of your favourite grains in the cupboard. "That you, you have an instant meal and all you have to do is just chuck a bit of veg in."
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The National selections:
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5.10pm Space Blues
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6.20pm Barney Roy
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Honeymoonish
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Sunday's Super Four matches
Dubai, 3.30pm
India v Pakistan
Abu Dhabi, 3.30pm
Bangladesh v Afghanistan
VEZEETA PROFILE
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Founder: Amir Barsoum
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
