Donald Kirk: Putin’s entry into Kazakhstan revives memories of the Soviet empire | Columnists

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DONALD KIRK InsideSources

Suddenly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has expanded his power and influence to an entire country before anyone even realizes what is happening.

No, we’re not talking about Ukraine, where Russian troops are looking across the line against low-level Ukrainian forces who may or may not be confident in support from the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including Putin’s US may not want to risk NATO. , but he quickly sent his forces to Kazakhstan without the slightest opposition.

That is because, in the case of Kazakhstan, the president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, asked the Russians to defend his regime against protesters who were angry at the sudden rise in oil and gas prices. All he had to do was ask Putin to save him, and Putin was glad to comply.

The arrival of several thousand Russian troops in Kazakhstan is perhaps the most dramatic sign we have seen so far of Putin’s dream of Russia’s resurrection as a great power. In fact, Kazakhstan is a Russian protectorate, not yet ruled or governed by Russia but under Russian protection.

Just three decades ago, Kazakhstan, a country with only 19-20 million people, 20 percent of whom are Russian and spread over a land nearly two-thirds the size of western Europe, seceded from the former Soviet Union. The rest is reluctant. All the other countries of the former Soviet that dominated eastern Europe and central Asia were already torn apart by the fall of Soviet power. Kazakhstan, rich in oil and strategically located in the heart of central Asia, does not feel the same resentment towards Kremlin management as other Soviet satellites.

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