Lukashenko: Events in Kazakhstan were pre-planned

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has shared the details of his overnight talks on the situation in Kazakhstan and the decision to deploy the peacekeeping forces in that country as he hosted a government meeting to discuss Belarus’ historical policy on January 6, Report informs referring to BelTA.

"You know what is happening in Kazakhstan. We are very concerned about the pre-planned nature of the events. We were in consultations all night. We were following the developments together with Vladimir Putin. We talked over phone several times," the president said.

He added that the situation in Almaty was very disturbing: "They set on fire everything they could. They seized the airport. They did it purposefully. There were attempts to seize the airports in Almaty and Nur-Sultan. Those were purposeful actions. Because they knew that the armed forces, primarily those of Russia and the CSTO countries, would be deployed there. They wanted to take control over the airports to make sure no one could land there. Fortunately, 40 kilometers away from Almaty, there is a military airfield controlled by the military. The attempt to seize the airport in Nur-Sultan failed at the time of my conversation with Tokayev."