MINSK, 7 January (BelTA) - The recent developments in Kazakhstan are an attempt at foreign interference, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he visited a church in Minsk on Christmas, 7 January, BelTA has learned.
“The recent events are alarming. We are very much concerned about what is happening in Kazakhstan, one of our main allies. People are suffering, major cities are engulfed in unrest there," the president said.
In his words, Belarus and Kazakhstan have a collective security agreement. “We have the relevant military units that have been in reserve for several years. They are well-trained. These are peacekeeping forces, which, together with our brotherly Russia, have been deployed to Almaty. Our servicemen, together with the Russian ones, are trying to realign the positions of the conflicting parties there today,” said the Belarusian leader.
"We went through it. I repeatedly said that once we allow some cracks, water will pour in. A holy place is never empty. This is what happened in Kazakhstan. Foreign bandits took advantage of this and started to rock the boat, first of all, in the prosperous south," the head of state said. “You'll see soon. This is an attempt at foreign interference. Now we need to figure out who is behind these bandits."
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the goal was to cut off the south of Kazakhstan. "Therefore, the south of Kazakhstan is so important for the current government, the current president of Kazakhstan. This is, by the way, the homeland of Kassym‑Jomart Tokayev. He was born in Almaty. We see confrontation there. I think that the situation will calm down soon. Deployment of the peacekeeping forces of Belarus, Russia, and other CSTO states will have a sobering effect on those who decided to destabilize the situation there," the president said.
