More than 160 people were killed and 5,000 arrested in Kazakhstan after the riots that shook Central Asia\u2019s largest country over the past week.
The interior ministry, quoted on Sunday by local media, said initial estimates put property damage at about 175 million euros ($198m) after the deadly violence.
More than 100 businesses and banks were attacked and looted and about 400 vehicles destroyed, the ministry said.
A total of 164 people, including two children, were killed in violent, Russia\u2019s Sputnik news agency cited the health ministry as saying on Sunday.
It said 103 people had died in Kazakhstan\u2019s main city of Almaty, where the worst of the violence took place.
\u201cToday the situation is stabilised in all regions of the country,\u201d Interior Minister Erlan Turgumbayev said, adding nonetheless \u201cthe counterterror operation is continuing in a bid to re-establish order in the country\u201d.
Al Jazeera\u2019s Robin Forestier-Walker, reporting from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, said the death toll is expected to increase.
\u201cWe are waiting for the body count to rise based on the scale of the fighting, the violence, and the shooting \u2013 heavy machine gun fire and explosions that went on for hours and hours during January 5 and 6,\u201d he said.
\u201cTo add to that, the so-called anti-terrorism operation is still continuing across the country \u2013 so a very big operation going on with the Kazakh government attempting to take back control of the situation.\u201d
A relative calm appeared to return to Kazakhstan\u2019s main city, Almaty, with police sometimes firing shots into the air to stop people approaching its central square.
In total, 5,135 people have been detained for questioning as part of 125 separate investigations into the unrest, the interior ministry said.
Shoot-to-kill policy
The energy-rich country of about 19 million people was rocked by a week of violence with dozens killed after riots prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to issue shoot-to-kill orders to end unrest he has blamed on what he terms \u201cbandits and terrorists\u201d.
Fuel price rises sparked the unrest a week ago in western provincial areas but they quickly reached large cities, including the economic hub Almaty, where riots erupted and police opened fire using live rounds amid the deadliest outbreak of violence in the country\u2019s 30 years of independence.
At Tokayev\u2019s invitation, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) sent troops to restore order, an intervention that comes at a time of high tension in Russia-United States relations ahead of new talks on the Ukraine crisis.
\u201cA number of strategic facilities have been transferred under the protection of the united peacekeeping contingent of the CSTO member states,\u201d the presidential office said in a statement detailing a security briefing chaired by Tokayev.
It did not identify the facilities.
Former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev was the longest-serving ruler of any former Soviet state until he turned over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019. His family is widely believed to have retained influence in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital that bears his name.
Bruce Pannier, journalist with Radio Free Europe, said Tokayev\u2019s decision to call in Russian military forces would be perceived as a \u201csign of weakness\u201d by the Kazakh people.
\u201cOne can sort of understand that he wanted to free up his own security forces to put down what he says are essentially terrorist attacks and an attempted coup \u2013 which is fairly ridiculous as there are definitely two different groups, most of whom are peaceful protesters in Kazakhstan,\u201d Pannier said, speaking from the Czech capital, Prague.
\u201cBut the interesting thing about this is the Collective Security Treaty Organisation that Russia leads has never actually deployed troops in any of its member states when there\u2019s been unrest,\u201d he continued.
\u201cIts charter states it is not supposed to interfere unless these member states face an external threat \u2013 which Tokayev provided by calling these terrorists \u2018international terrorists\u2019 and suggesting that they were trained outside the country.\u201d
Last Wednesday, Tokayev removed Nazarbayev as head of the country\u2019s Security Council, a role in which he had continued to wield significant influence.
Kazakhstan\u2019s former intelligence chief and two-time Prime Minister Karim Masimov was also arrested on Saturday on suspicion of treason.
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