Kazakhstan’s president fired the powerful head of the country’s security council on Wednesday in an attempt to calm the worst unrest to rock the Central Asian nation for more than a decade.

Protesters, initially angered by a New Year’s Day fuel price rise, have stormed and torched public buildings and chanted slogans against security chief Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has retained wide authority despite stepping down as president in 2019 after nearly three decades at the helm.

The cabinet also resigned on Wednesday, but that failed to quell the demonstrations, which have quickly come to encompass wider political demands beyond gas prices.

The protesters seized control of the airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. All flights to and from Almaty were temporarily cancelled, the source said.

Earlier, riot police used teargas and flash grenades against the protesters but then appeared to abandon some streets in Almaty, witnesses said.

Both the United States and Russia appealed for calm.

Nazarbayev’s hand-chosen successor as president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said in a national televised address that he had taken over as head of the State Security Committee, a post that had been retained by Nazarbayev.

The 81-year-old former president has still been widely seen as the main political force in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital which bears his name. His family is believed to control much of the Kazakh economy, the largest in Central Asia.

In his TV address, Tokayev did not mention his predecessor by name. Nazarbayev has not been seen or heard from since the protests began.

Tokayev also removed Nazarbayev’s nephew as No. 2 at the State Security Committee, successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

Source: Reuters