World News Graphic details of attacks on media in Kazakhstan described by Russian foreign ministry as it blasts OSCE’s inaction

Journalists managed to flee the building, aided by what was later described as the timely assistance of the Kazakh authorities. However, the intruders didn’t enter media offices to broadcast a statement, they apparently came there to destroy.“They knew very well where they were heading and certainly were not peaceful,” Zakharova wrote. She said the attackers methodically destroyed everything in their path, including the heating system, the working desks and all the telecommunications equipment. They also allegedly had walkie-talkies and “acted in accordance with a plan; were well prepared and organized,” she added. The rioters first flooded the office with the water from the heating valves and then set the facility on fire, eventually burning it down.Several other media offices belonging to local broadcasters, including Kazakhstan TV, Khabar TV and ‘Eurasia’ Channel, as well as Sputnik news agency, were targeted in a similar way, Zakharova said.“Neither the OSCE, nor any other international body demonstrated any interest in the fate of the ‘Mir’ journalists or those working for the other media,” Zakharova said.

Neither did any of the international bodies raise the issue of the responsibility of those who attacked the media offices, she added. The OSCE is yet to respond to Zakharova’s withering criticism. Kazakhstan has had a week of violence, after mass protests over skyrocketing fuel prices were seemingly overtaken by violent riots, in which dozens were killed and hundreds injured, with over 200 million dollars of damage dealt to government property, infrastructure and private businesses.On Friday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that the constitutional order had been “mainly restored” in all regions of the country, but the so-called “counter-terrorist” operation of local law enforcement continues, while peacekeeper forces from the five allied Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) nations have been dispatched to guard several strategic sites, on Tokayev’s request and in accordance with the CSTO charter.