Patriarch Kirill called the lands of Kazakhstan "the territory of historical Rus"
Patriarch Kirill dedicated part of the Christmas liturgy to a sermon on Kazakhstan, Depo.ua reports.
Gundyaev explained Kazakhstan's involvement in Russia by saying that "it is very close. This is near historical Russia. Therefore, we cannot be indifferent to this shedding of blood."
He called the country's lands "the territory of historical Russia", marked by the feat of many new martyrs and Confessors of the Church. He also noted that to achieve peace, both sides must be humble, and not engage in a tug-of-war.
"And today, to the best of my ability, I prayed that the Lord would bow his mercy to the people of Kazakhstan. So that internecine swearing stops, so that peace settles," Kirill said.
In Kazakhstan, people came out to protest after the government raised the price of liquefied petroleum gas from January 1, 2022. The protesters said that most vehicles in the Mangystau region are filled up with this fuel, but the current minimum wage makes it virtually inaccessible. They demanded to halve the price and provide their region with a constant supply of gas because now they are facing failures in its supply. In the end, on January 4, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced a reduction in gas prices - in the Mangistau region only.
Also, the president of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed the resignation of the government and fulfilled some other demands amid the protests. However, the protests continued. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev from the post of head of the Security Council, who, in their opinion, left the post of head of state only formally. Thereafter, Tokayev said that he would head the Security Council of Kazakhstan instead of Nazarbayev.
On January 5, a state of emergency was declared in Kazakhstan. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed to the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for help in suppressing the protests and declared a "terrorist threat".
In addition to Kazakhstan, the CSTO includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. They agreed to send their troops into the country.
More than 5 thousand protesters were detained. This is reported by Depo.ua citing the Telegram channel Tengrinews.kz.
On January 6, the situation in Kazakhstan escalated. Against the background of news about the arrival of "peacekeepers" from Russia, Armenia and Belarus, the shelling of central streets has intensified, and the network got videos from Russians who came to "save" Kazakhs.
At the end of the day, the Kazakh authorities announced taking administrative buildings under control, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the destruction of all those who do not lay down their weapons.
On January 7 in Kazakhstan, the authorities announced the complete suppression of protests. They are referring, in particular, to taking control of cities and almost completely restoring order.
On January 8, clashes between protesters and security forces continued. The curfew in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan was extended from 20 pm to 7 am.
