Welcome to The Inquiry. I'm Charmaine Cosia, each week four expert witnesses, one question, and an answer.

It's early January in Kazakhstan. Hundreds of demonstrators meet on a street in the city of Genazen.

The gathering is illegal because public protests without a government permit are banned.

In the days that follow thousands more people during similar demonstrations across the country,

they range from peaceful and spontaneous to violent and organised.

There are clashes with local security forces, dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests of reported.

Then the country's president, Kasim Jomar Tukayev, makes a surprise move.

He asks for foreign help. Russian-led troops arrive within hours.

It's the worst unrest in Kazakhstan's recent history, but it's not the only issue the country is facing right now.

There is also serious political infighting behind the scenes.

So this week we're asking, what's going on in Kazakhstan?

Part 1. The Winter of Discontent

The initial protests on January 2 happened because of a fuel press spike in the western part of Kazakhstan.

Russian-Gender Yeva is a PhD student at George Washington University.

She was born in Kazakhstan and lived there for 22 years.

A lot of households and a lot of cars are dependent on their gas and it increased twice within a span of a couple of days.

A price cap on liquefied petroleum gas, a cheap popular form of fuel which many drivers had converted their cars to use, was removed by the government.

The cost of filling up a tank nearly doubled.

Kazakhstan is rich in minerals and natural resources like oil and gas.

The first demonstration happened in an area like that, so why is a fuel price rise causing mass protests?

Unfortunately, the prosperity of that region of Manga-style, that's the western part of Kazakhstan, has not been shared equally and the benefits were not sort of trickling down to the working class there.

Basically, the ordinary people saw rising inequality and continuous corrupt practices every day.

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