Nursultan Nazarbayev – This is the first leader of the post-Soviet state, who tried to implement the transit of power. First, in 2019, he surrendered his presidency. Then Kazakhstan was headed by Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev.
Despite the change of the owner of the first cabinet of Kazakhstan, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin until recently, he continued to discuss issues of bilateral cooperation only with Nazarbayev. The relationship was secured according to the Schroeder model – that is, through employment in the Russian Gazprom.
This time, the son-in-law of the first president of Kazakhstan was elected to the board of directors of the Russian monopolist.
However, in November 2021, Nazarbayev officially announced the transfer of leadership in the ruling Nur Otan party to the current president of Kazakhstan – and after that, Putin invited Tokayev to hold an official meeting in the Kremlin in December.
Read also
–
Realizing that a new generation of politicians is emerging in Kazakhstan, Putin began to look for guarantees of influence on them and use his usual tools – fear and blackmail around weak points. And one of these is the long-standing corruption schemes that developed with the participation of Gazprom in the liquefied gas market of Kazakhstan.
Actually, they made it possible to keep the lowest price and satisfy the demand when other producers exported gas to other countries at market prices.
However, when Tokayev began to dismantle corruption schemes and get rid of the “Russian loop” due to price equalization, an artificial shortage “suddenly” formed and detonated the social narrative of a “fair” energy price.
Undoubtedly, the Russian Federation expected that Kazakh partners would turn for help in order to realize their geopolitical ambitions – to unite Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Russian Federation into a single union state and obtain such benefits as the joint use of subsoil resources and the elimination of competitors in the segment of pipeline gas supplies to China.
Read also
–
Further, it would expand the security belt through the construction of new nuclear power plants (remember Belarus) and the establishment of control over the infrastructure project “One Belt – One Road” through which Chinese goods are transported to European markets.
Also, this case would be used to solve domestic political problems – it is a demonstration to the Russian voter of all the benefits of a planned economy.
That is, the gradual revival of the Soviet Union, which Russian propagandists at various levels have been “dreaming of” for a long time.
Otherwise, the project of Turkish President Recep Erdogan will be implemented, the goal of which is to unite all Turkic peoples, including Kazakhstan, into a single alliance called “Big Turan”.
According to this scenario, the geopolitical role of the Russian Federation is significantly narrowed and a threat to the territorial integrity of the federation arises.
If you notice a spelling mistake, select it with the mouse and press Ctrl + Enter.
–
Articles published in the “Opinions” section reflect the point of view of the author and may not reflect the position of the LIGA.net editors
.
