Sharjah24 – AFP: Over 2,000 Russia-led troops began withdrawing from Kazakhstan on Thursday after being deployed when peaceful protests over an energy price hike turned into unprecedented violence, Moscow said.

The Russian defence ministry said the "collective peacekeeping forces ...are starting to prepare equipment and materiel for loading into the planes of the military transport aviation of the Russian aerospace forces and returning to the points of permanent deployment," said a defence ministry statement carried by Russian news agencies.