Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Monday that his country had weathered an attempted coup d’etat coordinated by what he called “a single centre” after the most violent unrest since the Soviet collapse.

In a speech to an online meeting of the Russian-led CSTO military alliance, Tokayev said that order had now been restored in Kazakhstan, but that the hunt for “terrorists” was ongoing.

“Under the guise of spontaneous protests, a wave of unrest broke out... It became clear that the main goal was to undermine the constitutional order and to seize power. We are talking about an attempted coup d’etat,” he said.

Demonstrations against a fuel price rise began just over a week ago before erupting into a wider protest against Tokayev’s government.

“The main blow was directed against (the city of) Almaty. The fall of this city would have paved the way for a takeover of the densely populated south and then the whole country,” he said.