On January 5th, amidst mass protests across Kazakhstan, President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev requested the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to send troops to help “stabilize” the country. The CSTO includes Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Kazakhstan. It has now been confirmed that Russian troops have entered Kazakhstan as part of a “peacekeeping force.” There have been little details about what the role of this “peacekeeping force” is. In fact, dozens of Kazakhstan protesters are being killed as Russian “peacekeepers” arrive. 

Recently, Sultan Khamzayev, a member of Russian parliament, has spoken of the need to conduct a referendum on including Kazakhstan into the Russian Federation. Such discourse increasingly resembles the events of February and March 2014 when Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine using referendum. 

We urge the international community to recognize the danger behind Russian-led foreign troops entering Kazakhstan and engaging in what is and can only be seen as an internal issue. Protests that are happening in Kazakhstan are a result of continuous and systematic corruption, oppression, authoritarianism, and widespread socio-economic inequality. These protests have nothing to do with the Russian-led military alliance. Such a move is nothing but an attack on the independence of Kazakh nation and Kazakh people. 

With this petition, we ask the United Nations and leaders of free, democratic countries to demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian-led troops from Kazakhstan. 

To find out more about the information cited in the petition, please visit:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/06/world/kazakhstan-protests  
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYW4oTltXcL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59880166 
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/6/protesters-police-killed-in-kazakhstan-unrest-live-updates 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26606097 
https://theweek.com/russia/1008676/dozens-of-kazakhstan-protesters-killed-as-russian-peacekeepers-arrive-to-stabilize