Sputnik Kazakhstan reported Thursday morning that all flights at the airport in the capital of Kazakhstan were canceled amid a temporary suspension of Internet service and the work of banks and stock exchanges.
At Nur-Sultan Airport, all flights have been canceled.
“These are flights to Alma-Ata, Symi, Petropavlovsk, Aktobe, Turkestan, and Moscow,” the agency said via Telegram.
On the other hand, the local media outlets reported that the work of banks and stock exchanges in Kazakhstan was temporarily suspended as protests continue in the country, according to a report issued by the National Bank.
The sources also mentioned that cellular communications and the Internet are currently suspended in the country’s largest cities.
Kazakhstan imposed a state of emergency throughout the country against the backdrop of demonstrations and riots that accompanied them due to protests against the doubling of gas prices.
Mass protests began in Kazakhstan in the early days of the new year as residents of the towns of Janausin and Aktau in Mangistau, an oil-producing region in western Kazakhstan, protested against the doubling of gas prices.
The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, directed the formation of a government committee to meet the demands of the demonstrators and reduce gas prices.
The protests spread to other cities as well. In Alma-Ata, the largest city and the first capital of the country, demonstrators clashed with security forces and the police used gas and sound bombs.
Tokayev urged citizens to be wise and not to be drawn into provocations from inside and outside.
He pointed out that calls to attack civilian and military offices are illegal, and the state “does not need conflict, but rather mutual trust and dialogue.”
Tokayev imposed a state of emergency in the Mangistau and Alma-Ata regions until January 19, and also dismissed the government, saying that “the Cabinet is particularly responsible because it created the situation that provoked the protest.”
