Machine gun patrols, barricades and broken ATM machines. Report from Alma-Ata – RBK

Anarchy reigns in the largest city of Kazakhstan. Shooting still sounds in the center, corpses lie in the square and in the streets, communications practically do not work. How the city lives – in the report of the RBC correspondent from Alma-Ata

In Alma-Ata, even after the start of the anti-terrorist operation and the introduction of peacekeeping troops, anarchy continues to reign, there are no authorities, the rule in the city is, in fact, one thing – do not approach the Republic Square near the akimat, from where shooting is constantly heard, sometimes in bursts.

The white building of the akimat now looks like a black monolith: the building has completely burned out – from the first floor to the roof. On the square in front of him, military men with machine guns are standing in a cordon; – and fire warning shots. The approaches to the square are blocked by inverted benches or special barriers. There are bullet-riddled cars on the empty streets in this buffer zone, bloodstains on the asphalt. At the exit from the square there is an old red Mazda with a bullet through the windshield, in the driver’s seat there is a corpse in a bloody pea jacket.

One of the avenues overlooking the square bears the name of Nursultan Nazarbayev, but one cannot immediately understand this – all the signs and signs with the name of the first president have been torn off or smashed from the houses, road signs have been knocked down, signs have been dropped or damaged, there is an abandoned one that crashed into a tree. ” nine “, on the passenger seat – a lifeless body, head on the chest, from under the cap – two caked streams of blood, the door is shot through, on the driver’s side there is a pool of blood on the asphalt.

Of the rare police cars rushing through the streets of the city, the barrels of machine guns and pistols are directed to the sidewalks, the fingers of employees are on the triggers. Sometimes a convoy of military equipment, led by an armored vehicle with a loaded machine gun, passes by.

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