Kazakhstan government resigns amid mass protests over fuel price hike

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has accepted the government's resignation after a wave of unprecedented protests that swept the oil-rich Central Asian country over fuel price hikes.

"In accordance with Article 70 of the Republic of Kazakhstan, I hereby resolve to accept the resignation of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan," Tokayev said in a presidential decree on Wednesday.

According to the president's office, Alikhan Smailov was appointed as acting prime minister.

The announcement came hours after Tokayev declared a two-week state of emergency in the country's biggest city, Almaty, as well as western Mangistau Province, where protests over surging gas prices turned violent. Photos and videos that surfaced online showed armored vehicles moving in the streets.

"Calls to attack government and military offices are absolutely illegal," he said in a video address, adding, "The government will not fall, but we want mutual trust and dialog rather than conflict."

In Almaty, Kazakhstan's financial capital, police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse crowds of thousands of people who had gathered in the city's main square on Tuesday, as protesters toppled, smashed, and set police cars alight. Intense clashes went on between riot police and protesters for hours in nearby areas.

Video footage showed a large crowd of people rocking a police van onto its side, vandalizing police cars, and setting several law enforcement vehicles on fire.

The mass protests began in Mangistau on Sunday, following the government's decision to lift price controls on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — a move that roughly doubled gas prices within a matter of days — and engulfed other parts of the country.

Tokayev later ordered the acting cabinet members and provincial governors to restore LPG price controls and broaden them to gasoline, diesel, and other "socially important" consumer goods. He also ordered the government to develop a personal bankruptcy law and consider freezing utilities' prices and subsidizing rent payments for poor families.

The president also claimed the situation was improving in protest-hit cities and towns after the state of emergency was declared, which included a curfew, movement restrictions, and a ban on mass gatherings.

Kazakhstan is a major energy power, among the top exporters of oil globally and in the leading 20 for gas. The country's government has subsidized liquefied petroleum gas for years, but argued that price controls needed to be lifted as keeping them in place was no longer sustainable.

The latest protests shook the country's image as a politically stable and tightly controlled nation — an image it has used to attract hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign investment in its oil and metals industries.

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