The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Kazakhstan president gives shoot-to-kill order against protesters, dismissing calls for negotiations

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Updated January 7, 2022 at 3:23 p.m. EST|Published January 7, 2022 at 12:52 a.m. EST
A burned-out administrative building in central Almaty on Jan. 7, after violence that erupted following protests over hikes in fuel prices. (Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP/Getty Images)

MOSCOW — Kazakhstan’s president said Friday he has ordered his troops to “shoot to kill without warning” in an effort to crush anti-government protests that have raged this week.

Chaotic and violent scenes persisted in the resource-rich Central Asian country of 19 million, as the first “peacekeeping” troops from a Russian-led military alliance arrived following President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s request for foreign intervention to deal with widespread protests over a decrepit political system and dramatic energy price hikes.