MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/: All the ten planes with Russian peacekeepers from the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) peacekeeping contingent arrived in Ivanovo in central Russia from Kazakhstan, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Saturday.
"All the ten planes with the Russian peacekeepers from the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces have arrived at the Severny aerodrome (Ivanovo) from Kazakhstan," the ministry said in a statement.
After the last military transport plane touches down at the airfield, a welcome back ceremony will be held, following which the personnel with their equipment will depart for their permanent base, the ministry said.
"A welcome back ceremony will be held at the airfield for the Russian paratroopers who accomplished all their assigned tasks with high professionalism," the statement says.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities, primarily in Almaty, a few days later. The ensuing violence left thousands of people injured, with fatalities also being reported. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions.
The Kazakh president later said that the post-Soviet security bloc’s forces had played a crucial role in stabilizing the situation in Kazakhstan and called their mission successful. On January 13, the CSTO began the pullout of its peacekeeping contingent from the Central Asian republic.
