January put Kazakhstan in the spotlight with the wave of protests that started as peaceful demonstrations against fuel price rises and rapidly turned into mass anti-government disturbances.
The authoritarian government used excessive force to restore order with the involvement of the Russia-led troops of CSTO. By official accounts only, 225 people were killed and many more injured. Some 10,000 people have been detained in the wake of the protests, according to the authorities.
What did Russian propaganda have to say? Of course, the events were covered using disinformation and anti-Western rhetoric, which Russian media exploited to discredit the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine and pro-democracy protests in Belarus.