When Putin Called Kazakhstan ‘a Russian-Speaking Land,’ Tokayev Responded by Speaking Kazakh

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 28 – When Vladimir Putin came to Astan to take part in the summit of the Organization for the Collective Security Treaty, the Russian leader called Kazakhstan “a Russian-speaking land.” His Kazakhstan counterpart, Kasym-Jomart Tokayev, who spoke next responded in Kazakh, forcing Putin and his entourage to seek translations.
    In many respects, Tokayev’s response was emblematic of Putin’s failure in Kazakhstan, a failure that Russian commentators have acknowledged by suggesting that the Russian leader did not get want he wanted and that his meetings with Central Asian leaders were less than a success (novgaz.com/index.php/2-news/3828-путин-обещал-всех-прикрыть).
    In fact, as Viktoriya Andreyeva, one of these writers put it, “Putin’s visit to Kazakhstan demonstrated that Moscow is losing control over even its closest allies. Tokayev by his open gestures gave him to understand that Kazakhstan no longer intends to be a silent partner” but will speak with its own voice (rusmonitor.com/kazahstan-protiv-rossii-diplomaticheskaya-igra-na-vysshem-urovne.html).
    “For Russia,” she observes, such a signal is one more reminder that the era of the unqualified influence of Moscow on the post-Soviet space is coming to an end,” exactly the opposite of what Putin hoped for when he began his expanded war in Ukraine almost three years ago.