CSTO's Intervention in Kazak Unrest of 2022: Nature and Consequences

Abstract

The 2022 unrest in Kazakhstan in January 2022 was a pivotal moment in the politics of the post-Soviet region, and the first noteworthy military intervention by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The protests began with an acute increase in the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices and quickly turned into the countrywide protests involving violent confrontations, assaults on government facilities, and a provisional loss of state power, especially in Almaty. The President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev responded by seeking military help of the CSTO, arguing that a foreign-trained terrorist group was attacking Kazakhstan. Within several days, some 2,500 troops of the CSTO, comprising mostly Russian forces, was stationed to stabilize the situation and secure strategic infrastructure. It is a critical article on the nature and the impact of CSTO intervention in Kazakhstan. It evaluates the possibility that the deployment was a valid peacekeeping operation pursuant to the collective security provisions or it was primarily a regime protection and Russian geopolitical instrument. Applying theoretical lenses of Realism, Securitization Theory, and Authoritarian Resilience, the paper examines how the intervention was an indication of larger interests of regime stability, regional security, and the sphere of influence of Russia in Central Asia. The paper also contends that the Kazakhstan crisis has turned the CSTO into an active security group besides casting doubts on the concept of sovereignty, authoritarian defense, and selective intervention. In the end, the intervention helped reinforce the strategic position of Russia in Eurasia and set a significant precedent in responding to political instability in the post-Soviet space in the future.