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‘Destroy Them’: Kazakhstan President Orders Troops to Shoot Protesters Without Warning

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he’d personally authorized security forces to open fire at will on demonstrators.

Kazakhstan’s authoritarian president has ordered troops to shoot protesters without warning to crush the mass anti-government uprising that was sparked by spiraling fuel prices this week. Speaking in a televised address Friday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he’d personally authorized security forces to “fire without warning” and dismissed calls to talk to protest leaders as “nonsense.” He went on: “What kind of talks can we hold with criminals and murderers? We had to deal with armed and well-prepared bandits, local as well as foreign. More precisely, with terrorists. So we have to destroy them. This will be done soon.” Tokayev also offered his “special thanks” to Russian President Vladimir Putin for sending troops to help end the protests. Dozens of demonstrators have been reported dead since the uprising began and authorities said more than 3,000 people have been detained.