JRL NEWSWATCH: “Kazakhstan Unrest and Russia’s Intervention Transform Ties With Moscow” – WSJ
“As violence grows, the Russian military deployment injects a new element into the crisis in the former Soviet republic.”
“… Nazarbayev steered the country along two tracks[,] [a]t home, … strengthen[ing] … Kazakh identity and weaken[ing] Russia’s historic influence[,] [while, in] foreign and defense policy … hew[ing] close to the Kremlin, assuring Russia … Kazakhstan would always remain a strategic ally. That balancing act paid off … until now. … Nazarbayev … [had] retained considerable power as head of the country’s Security Council … [but just] lost that position to his successor …. Tokayev[] [who soon] invite[d] Russian peacekeeping troops into Kazakhstan …. As violence grows and Kazakhstan’s state displays surpris[ing] weakness … Russian military intervention has injected a new, critical element …. [I]nternal conflict … sparked by localized outrage over rising fuel prices … [with] no geopolitical connotations or religious coloring now risks turning into something more perilous. …”