In a video call with parliament on Tuesday after putting down what he has called an attempted coup, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appointed a new government headed by career public servant Alikhan Smailov.

In what looked like his latest attempt to distance himself from his predecessor, Tokayev said that public discontent over income inequality was justified and that he wanted associates of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former president, to share their wealth.

Many Central Asia analysts believe intra-clan infighting among the elite may have played a major role in what was the deadliest violence in the former Soviet republic's 30 years of independence from Moscow.

As protesters torched buildings in the biggest city Almaty last week, Tokayev said former leader Nazarbayev was leaving his post as head of the powerful Security Council - where he had continued to pull the strings despite handing over the presidency in 2019.

Nazarbayev, 81, who ran the country for almost three decades and backed Tokayev as his successor, has not made a public appearance since.

Thanks to Nazarbayev, "a group of very profitable companies emerged in the country as well as a group of people wealthy even by international standards," Tokayev told parliament.

"I think it is time they pay their dues to the people of Kazakhstan and help them on a systemic and regular basis."

He gave no names, but the list of Kazakhstan's richest people includes several members of Nazarbayev's extended family, including his daughter Dinara with her husband, and a father-in-law of the former president's late grandson.

Tokayev said the financial system was dominated by large business groups "based on the principle 'everything for friends, and laws for everyone else'".

He spoke of initiatives to narrow the wealth gap, raise taxes on the mining sector, and eliminate irregularities in state procurement and areas where associates of Nazarbayev have business interests.

Tokayev also rounded on security officials, accusing them of abandoning their posts and letting protesters capture weapons and sensitive documents.

He has blamed the violence on foreign-trained Islamist radicals and "terrorists".

The fact that Russian-led forces that Tokayev called in to help stabilise the situation were first deployed to the capital, Nur-Sultan, prompted speculation at the time that their mission was to protect the government and Tokayev himself at a time when he could not fully trust his own security forces.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Washington welcomed the announcement that the forces have completed their mission and called on them to "uphold their commitment to promptly depart Kazakhstan, as the government has requested".

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in defending Kazakhstan from what he described as a foreign-backed terrorist uprising.

Kazakh authorities say order has been largely restored in the nation of 19 million and that almost 10,000 people have been detained over the unrest, with a hunt for others ongoing.

Australian Associated Press