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 Revolt in Kazakhstan: What’s Happening, and Why It Matters As protests in the oil-rich Central Asian country gain momentum, the events threaten to reverberate across the region. Protests in Kazakhstan incited by anger over surging fuel prices have intensified into something more combustible and bloody: clashes over the future direction of the country that have prompted a Russia-led military intervention and the killing of dozens of antigovernment demonstrators. Hundreds more have been injured. The government said on Friday that order had been “mainly restored” after thousands of angry protesters took to the streets of Kazakhstan, creating the biggest crisis to shake the autocratic Central Asian country since it gained independence in 1991. City Hall in Almaty, the country’s largest city, was set ablaze. An angry mob took over the airport. Protesters set fire to police vehicles and to the regional branch of the ruling Nur Otan party. The police, in turn, accused demonstrators of be...