Security at Baikonur spaceport’s key facilities tightened, Roscosmos chief says

"Today it was calm at Baikonur. The branches of Roscosmos’ enterprises, law enforcement agencies, city services and organizations are working as normal. The crisis center set up at Baikonur’s administration is fully controlling the situation in the city. Armed security at the cosmodrome’s key facilities has been boosted," Rogozin wrote in his Telegram channel.

Earlier the Roscosmos press service told reporters that the law enforcement agencies in Baikonur, a city in Kazakhstan leased by Russia and which hosts the Russian spaceport, were working as normal and the situation was calm.

The protests in Kazakhstan, which kicked off on January 2 as a response to a surge in liquefied petroleum gas prices, snowballed into serious riots on the fourth day. The country’s largest city Almaty was the epicenter. According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, terrorist gangs seized the airport and five airliners, including foreign aircraft. Earlier, Tokayev dismissed the government. Amid the riots, he replaced the republic’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev as the head of the Security Council and vowed tough actions.

A state of emergency has been introduced across the entire Kazakhstan, the Mir-24 TV channel reported on Wednesday. According to the Habar-24 TV channel, the state of emergency will remain in effect until January 19. Earlier, Tokayev imposed a two-week state of emergency in the Mangystau Region and in the Almaty Region, as well as the republic’s largest city of Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan.