Protesters arrested after demonstration against currency devaluation

    Police in Kazakhstan have clamped down on a protest against the devaluation of the country’s currency.
    Several people were arrested on Sunday including, reportedly, two journalists.
    They had gathered close to the Independence Monument in central Almaty.
    There is anger nationwide after the Government devalued the tenge last week by around one-fifth against the dollar with immediate effect, meaning overnight peoples salaries and savings were worth a fifth less and the price of imports is set to go up.
    There was particular outrage as the National Bank chairman had denied a month previously that the country would stop propping up the tenge.
    The government said it had to be devalued because of uncertainty over the exchange rate of the Russian ruble.
    Public protest is unusual in Kazakhstan, but this is the seventh protest in Almaty within 10 days.
    President Nazarbayev has been in power since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Kazakhstan has never held an election recognised as free and fair by the West, according to Euronews.