Russia-Led troops begin pullback from Kazakhstan

Over 2,000 Russia-led troops began withdrawing from Kazakhstan, Moscow said after being deployed when peaceful protests over an energy price hike turned into unprecedented violence claiming dozens of lives.

The decision to despatch peacekeepers was a first for the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), often touted by Russia as a NATO equivalent but previously reluctant to interfere in unrest in Central Asia — a region with long historical ties to Russia.

Russia’s defense ministry said the “collective peacekeeping forces … are starting to prepare equipment and materiel for loading into the planes of the military transport aviation of the Russian aerospace forces and returning to the points of permanent deployment.”