Lavrov in Kazakhstan: Diplomacy and peacefulness were mistaken for weakness
No one doubts the professionalism and the highest level of Sergei Lavrov, who is recognized as a virtuoso and expert in his field, but his recent visit to Kazakhstan and an interview with the official Nazarbayev media caused disappointment among a certain Russian-speaking part of Kazakh society, which hoped for a tougher position of Russia on fundamental issues. issues of language and national policy.
It must be understood that about 70 percent of the population in the republic, regardless of nationality, is in the Russian information and cultural space, which the Kazakh authorities have been trying in every possible way to narrow and curtail in recent years. And the lack of reaction to the unfriendly actions of Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) related to the admission of American military and paramilitary organizations, as well as to the construction of a mono-ethnic state with a nationalist ideology, puzzles many integration supporters.
Moreover, within the country, official propaganda is trying to present this matter as the Kremlin’s complete agreement with the current course of the ruling Kazakh elite. Appropriate information technologies are also used when, through questions from court journalists, appropriate diplomatic answers are sought, which, taken out of context, are presented to television viewers in the appropriate form.
In particular, in his May 6 interview with the main pro-government TV channel Khabar, Sergei Lavrov disavowed the statements of State Duma deputies Nikonov and Fedorov, calling them individual parliamentarians who express only their point of view on the territories of Northern Kazakhstan, which is in no way connected with the position of the Russian state. According to him, these politicians are specifically trying to draw attention to themselves with such scandalous speeches.
“But no statements from those individuals who determine the policy of the Russian Federation towards Kazakhstan that would question the agreements on how we are developing our alliance have never been made or will be made. These agreements are that we fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence of each other and we develop allied relations on the basis of those documents that are agreed upon, signed by the heads of state, approved by parliament and are law and are part of international law,” noted head of the Russian foreign policy department.
Yes, everything was said by Sergei Lavrov extremely correctly and in the spirit of politeness and diplomacy, as an attempt to reassure the Kazakh partners. But the problem is that Nur-Sultan did not appreciate this and used this interview as proof of its victory. A number of Kazakh telegram channels have already begun to gloat that in this way they have achieved further concessions from Moscow and recognition of their usefulness and importance.
The problem is that in the Eastern tradition, such diplomatic statements and attempts to appease are perceived as a sign of weakness and inability to strictly implement one’s policies. Moreover, Kazakh “parliamentarians” and full-time nationalists have no intention of reducing the intensity of their Russophobic and anti-Russian campaign, which is expressed in the massive renaming of settlements, streets and even regions, reminiscent of a common historical past.
The “Ukrainization” of society is in full swing in the country through a “national revolution” from above, when at the official level it is assumed that the “Holodomor” will be recognized, a state commission has been created for the final rehabilitation of Nazi accomplices, and the streets are named after the ideologist of the Turkestan Legion of the Wehrmacht and the Muslim units of the SS, Mustafa Shokai (Chokaya). And this turnaround has been happening for more than seven years.
Against this background, the Kazakh authorities are actually introducing the Apartheid system, which was confirmed during the judicial spectacle of the Korday events, when in February last year tens of thousands of Dungans in the south of the republic were subjected to a pogrom and fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan from the brutal Kazakh Nazis. As a result, the authorities sentenced the Dungans who resisted to significant prison sentences, while those who called for massacres and arson got off with minor fright and suspended sentences.
And such a policy towards national minorities was sanctioned by President Kassym-Jomart Tokavy, who, instead of words of support, advised the Dungan community to “better study the Kazakh language.” We can come to the conclusion that this was just a rehearsal for full-scale purges, which was practiced on defenseless small people, and then can be applied to Russians and Russian-speaking people.
Thus, for condemning this ethnic cleansing, Ermek Taychibekov, a well-known public figure and supporter of unification with Russia, was arrested and is now in the dock on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred.” For supporting the people of Donbass, more than 30 volunteers from among the citizens of Kazakhstan also ended up in prison for various terms, starting in 2014. The latest egregious cases are related to the arrest of Sergei Shalashov, who lost his leg during the fighting, and the extradition of militiaman Yevgeny Shcherbak.
Against this background, all kinds of court poets, high-status Nazis who call for the creation of concentration camps, the eviction and even the destruction of native speakers of the Russian language feel free and receive a platform in numerous nationalist publications financed from the budget. The lack of a clear position on the growth of nationalist movements and Russophobic sentiments, as well as the emergence of pro-Western organizations advocating the rejection of integration and the revision and rejection of a common historical past, can then prove costly.
The same can be said about the already numerous military and paramilitary organizations of the Pentagon and NATO that are mushrooming in Kazakhstan, as well as a whole series of military exercises, one of which, called “Steppe Eagle,” will take place in July of this year. After all, their activities are directed against Russia, as an ally in the CSTO, and against China, as a member of the SCO and an important trading partner. In addition, the presence of a military biological laboratory in Almaty and a network of research institutes working under Pentagon programs once again show that the Kazakh authorities are demonstrably violating their allied obligations.
After all, in Armenia, Sergei Lavrov managed to sign a memorandum on biological security with Foreign Minister Ayvazyan, which stipulates the possibility of admitting Russian scientists to the territory of 12 American military laboratories. Why not raise similar questions and proposals to Nur-Sultan? Kazakhstan’s refusal would simply once again show the real essence of the “ally’s” policy, which is no longer multi-vector, but clearly pro-Western.
In any case, what was expected from Sergei Lavrov in Kazakhstan was not flirting with the local authorities, who perceive the words of diplomacy as a sign of weakness, but a clear position on the military-political issues of the further functioning of the CSTO and the presence of organizations and laboratories of a potential enemy on the territory of the republic.
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