By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin By — Ali Rogin Ali Rogin Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/kazakh-president-issues-shoot-to-kill-order-as-protesters-clash-with-troops Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio Kazakhstan’s president on Friday vowed to “shoot to kill” protestors after a week of demonstrations. Kazakhstan lies at the strategic crossroads of Russia, China and Central Asia, and has large energy reserves— with billions invested by U.S. companies. Yet many Kazakhs live in poverty. Economic woes are boiling over into demands to upend the country’s authoritarian politics. Nick Schifrin reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Judy Woodruff: Today, Kazakstan's president promised to shoot to kill protesters after a week of demonstrations.Kazakstan lies at the strategic crossroads of Russia, China, and Central Asia, and has large energy reserves with billions invested by American companies.Despite that wealth, many Kazakhs live in poverty.And, as Nick Schifrin reports, economic frustrations are boiling over into demands to upend the country's authoritarian politics. Nick Schifrin: In Western Kazakstan, the protest became a revolt.Protesters chant "Shal, ket, "Old man out," a reference to 81-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, who's helped lead Kazakstan since independence 30 years ago, and is the symbol of a corrupt elite whom demonstrators tried to topple.They rallied to target a system they say enriches political cronies, and neglects the people. Rafik Zharylkasyn, Protester (through translator): You have to understand what has happened here. The coiled spring has now been unleashed after 30 years.Richard Hoagland, Former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakstan: Kazakstan is wealthy, but, technically, it's listed as a lower-, middle-income country. And the actual day-to-day incomes of the majority of the population, it's really quite low. Nick Schifrin: Richard Hoagland is a former U.S. ambassador to Kazakstan, and is now at the Caspian Policy Institute. Richard Hoagland: Most of the money has gone into very few pockets, and those tend to be the pockets of the oligarchs and the pockets of the Nazarbayev extended family. Nick Schifrin: Nazarbayev stepped down as president in 2019, but, as the so-called father of the nation, installed current President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as his successor.Tokayev recently increased the price of fuel, sparking protests in Western Kazakstan earlier this week. That ignited a political flame. In the cultural capital, Almaty, they stormed government buildings. By Thursday, the mayor's office and the presidential residence both burned out.Authorities turned violent. Police said they — quote — "liquidated" more than two dozen protesters. Over multiple days, demonstrators attacked police, burned police cars, and authorities say they killed more than 18 cops, at least one by beheading.President Tokayev called the protesters foreign terrorists, cut off the Internet, and, today, told police to shoot to kill.Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakstan (through translator): The militants have not laid down their arms. The fight against them must be pursued to the end. Whoever does not surrender will be destroyed. Nick Schifrin: And now, for the first time, an alliance of post-Soviet states deployed militarily, and Russian troops are in a neighbor considered the region's most stable country.Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken question the need for Russia's presence.Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: Kazakh authorities and government certainly have the capacity to deal appropriately with protests, to do so in a way that respects the rights of protesters, while maintaining law and order.Once Russians are in your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave. Nick Schifrin: Tokayev has maintained a partnership with the U.S., in part through American oil giants' presence in Kazakstan's west. But Russia's influence is greater, and President Vladimir Putin's may increase with a Russian deployment, says Hoagland. Richard Hoagland: What he's probably doing is, in a way, making sure that a new Western-looking generation of leadership does not come into power immediately in Kazakstan, that it will stay with the people who understand Russia, who are partners with Russia. And Russia gets a leg up that way. Nick Schifrin: And it looks like Kazakstan's leaders will try to keep their power by targeting their own citizens.For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Jan 07, 2022 By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin By — Ali Rogin Ali Rogin Ali Rogin is a correspondent for the PBS News Hour and PBS News Weekend, reporting on a number of topics including foreign affairs, health care and arts and culture. She received a Peabody Award in 2021 for her work on News Hour’s series on the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect worldwide. Rogin is also the recipient of two Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and has been a part of several teams nominated for an Emmy, including for her work covering the fall of ISIS in 2020, the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2014, and the 2010 midterm elections.