After days of protests and violence, in the city of Almaty and in several other places Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, discussed the situation in the country on Saturday.
The conversation was about restoring "order", reports the American television channel CNN.
According to a Kremlin statement, Tokayev told Putin that the situation was stabilizing.
He is also said to have expressed his "appreciation" that Moscow-led military forces from the security organization CSTO had been sent to Kazakhstan, in an attempt to control the violence on the streets.
At the same time, several high-profile officials were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of treason.
One of them is Karim Massimov, former head of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee.
It is announced by the country's national security committee, according to the state media company Khabar 24. What is the basis for the accusations is currently unclear.
According to the news agency Reuters, Massimov was fired this week.
He is said to have been imprisoned along with several other unnamed men.
"Dissatisfaction remains"
About 20 protesters and 18 policemen were killed in the protests, hundreds were injured and more than 3,000 were arrested, according to the Interior Ministry.
Public buildings throughout Kazakhstan have been searched and set on fire - in what is being described as the worst unrest since the former Soviet republic was declared independent in 1991.
On Friday, Tokayev stated in a televised speech that the constitutional order "has been largely restored in all regions" but that "terrorists" continue to use weapons.
He has therefore given the country's military permission to fire on protesters "without warning".
That the order has been restored seems to be true, but according to SVT's Russia correspondent Bert Sundström, this does not mean that the demonstrators are satisfied with the situation.
- Beneath the surface, dissatisfaction remains, says Bert Sundström.
President Tokayev has declared January 10 a day of national mourning for the victims "as a result of the terrorist attacks in the country", his press office wrote on Twitter.
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.
Read more about browser support
SVT's reporter Matilda Nyberg interviews Johan Engvall from FOI about how Kazakhstan, despite oil and natural gas, has been a country in deep poverty.
Photo: SVT