Putin and Tokayev Keep Saying They’ve Agreed to Open Russian Schools in Kazakhstan and Kazakh Schools in Russia But Nothing is Happening, ‘Spik’ News Agency Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 18 – Almost every time Vladimir Putin and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan respectively, have met over the last three years, they have announced their commitment to opening Russian schools in Kazakhstan and Kazakh schools in the Russian Federation.

            Kazakhs were encouraged by this, the Spik news agency says, because at present there are about 1,000 Russian language schools and 2,000 mixed Russian-Kazakh schools in Kazakhstan but not a single Kazakh or mixed Kazakh-Russian school in the Russian Federation (spik.kz/2500-otkrytie-kazahskih-shkol-v-rossii-i-russkih-v-kazahstane-poka-odni-slova.html).

            But despite the promises of the presidents, nothing has happened. Instead, Russian speakers in Kazakhstan have schools that serve them in their native language; but Kazakh speakers in the Russian Federation don’t have schools in their native language despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs there.

            The Kazakhstan news agency suggests that this imbalance is one of the most important factors stimulating the rise of Kazakh nationalism and making such feelings more anti-Russian than they would otherwise be, a trend that has come to a head in recent months with controversy swirling around plans for yet another Russian-Kazakh school in Kazakhstan.