Another “union” tripping up Russia from Kazakhstan
One behind-the-scenes event within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum caused an extremely nervous reaction from Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd), which, judging by the statements of court Kazakh nationalists and political scientists, even led to real hysteria. The point is that Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Pankin did not rule out taking retaliatory measures by the EAEU against the United States and EU countries, but in response, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry immediately began to disown it, declaring its love for the West.
The whole fuss began after a statement by Alexander Pankin, who noted that “the issue of retaliatory measures to unfriendly sanctions actions of third countries against (the countries of) the EAEU has been put on the agenda, it is being considered - and will be considered.” The Belarusian side has also put forward similar initiatives in recent days, rightly believing that members of the Union must together and jointly respond to hostile steps on the part of Western powers, which ultimately affect the economies of all republics included in the association.
However, in Nur-Sultan they think completely differently, and urgently on Saturday, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry even made a special statement that completely disavowed the words of Alexander Pankin and rejected the thesis about the upcoming “consolidated measures” of the EAEU countries in response to US sanctions. Moreover, Akorda (the presidential administration) actually accused the Kremlin of deliberately politicizing the integration association, citing that the purpose of its creation was only to “ensure the freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labor, creating conditions for the stable development of economies.”
That is, in simple terms, Nazarbayev and Co. accuse Russia and Belarus of considering the EAEU, among other things, as a political entity, that is, they regard it as a consolidated alliance of like-minded states that have a common position and are able to jointly resist external threats and challenges. In attempts to disown the statements of their Russian colleague, they use rotten neoliberal arguments about the pure economic nature of the Union, forgetting that politics is a mirror image of the economy.
Further more. At the Khan's headquarters (Akorda is actually translated this way. Ed.) they believe that their cause is a side, and Western sanctions apply exclusively to Moscow, and now Minsk, and, accordingly, Kazakhstan should not bear its burden, much less respond to them. In fact, this is not just a desire to step aside, but also such a preventive demarche in order to prevent the issue from being raised and the adoption of such a consolidated decision within the EAEU.
“In the context of discussing initiatives that go beyond the scope of regulation of the Treaty on the EAEU, including the use of response measures to sanctions actions of third countries, we proceed from the fact that Western sanctions are based, first of all, on political motives and are directed against individual states , and not the entire EAEU. We note that the Republic of Kazakhstan is not conducting any negotiations on “consolidated measures” of the EAEU countries in response to sanctions of other states. When working with partners in Eurasian integration, we can only talk about joint actions to prevent the negative impact of such sanctions on the socio-economic development of our states,” follows from a disseminated message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
From this excerpt of a statement from Kazakh diplomacy it follows that if Russia wants a sanctions war, then let it fight itself. This was actually clear earlier from the entire previous “multi-vector” policy of Nursultan Nazarbayev. But, in my opinion, the ruling pro-Western elite in Nur-Sultan is not just afraid of Washington’s reaction, but acts now and in the past as an agent and lobbying force of the West within the EAEU in order to prevent its further progressive development and transformation into a real confederation with its own supranational government, parliament, the bank, the single currency and the military command.
It is beneficial for the White House to keep the EAEU in a weak state of limbo, where there cannot be a single position and common approaches on international and even domestic political issues. And it is no coincidence that throughout all these years, starting from December 2013, Nur-Sultan has constantly torpedoed all initiatives to deepen integration processes and rejected even the idea of creating an electronic currency to improve mutual settlements and level the consequences of those very sanctions.
To confirm its rotten supposedly neutral position, Nur-Sultan, according to the laws of the genre, began to mobilize smaller internal puppets to create an appropriate background noise. Thus, Vice Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Janel Kushukova also reported on behalf of all countries that the issue of applying any collective measures in response to sanctions of third countries is not being worked out or discussed at the EAEU platform.
“Moreover, such issues are not within the competence of the Eurasian Union at all and are not on the agenda. Since the creation of the EAEU, the Republic of Kazakhstan has maintained the position that this association is purely economic in nature. We are fundamentally against the politicization of our relations within the Union and the adoption of measures that could affect relations with third countries,” she said.
Following the Deputy Minister, various court political scientists and commentators of various ranks, as well as all kinds of national patriots pulled out of the closet, went into action. Immediately, for example, a well-known political scientist in the highest circles of the Khan’s headquarters, Talgat Kaliev, appeared, who began blaming Russia on his Telegram channel for the fall in the value of the national currency tenge and the deterioration of the lives of Kazakhstanis.
Political scientist Talgat Kaliev
“Meanwhile, since the annexation of Crimea, the exchange rate of the Russian ruble has fallen by more than half, pulling the currencies of partner countries into a similar abyss. The Kazakh tenge has since collapsed from 180 to today's 427 tenge per dollar. In fact, citizens of the EAEU countries have become so impoverished in dollar terms, forced to limit themselves in purchasing imported consumer goods or traveling abroad. States have also become poorer, forced to index social payments and launch new programs to combat poverty,” said this favorite of the court.
It would be interesting to know what anti-poverty programs Akorda has adopted in recent years? You will never get an answer to this question, but the fact remains that the ruling elite in Kazakhstan, through the media, deliberately and constantly accuses Russia and the EAEU of falling living standards of citizens, thereby abdicating responsibility for the failures of their projects and the bankruptcy of the neoliberal raw material model of the economy and creating a negative image of the Union and integration processes in general.
But whether he wanted it or not, Talgat Kaliev revealed some of the internal fears of the Kazakh celestials, which literally broke through in the plaintive howl of this national pseudo-political scientist.
“Moreover, among the sanctions proposed for discussion, there will inevitably be visa restrictions for officials of countries adopting sanctions against the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Which are traditionally of a mirror nature. That is, the adoption of visa sanctions against individuals from the EU and US countries will lead to visa restrictions against our citizens. No matter how offensive it may be to realize, they will easily survive the inability to visit the countries of the EAEU, and for us this will result in extremely painful consequences. Including for students studying at foreign universities,” Talgat Kaliev is hysterical.
They are afraid that after retaliatory sanctions they will not be able to come to their European and American villas to see their mistresses and to their treasured safe deposit boxes and accounts, and their children will not be able to enroll or further study at prestigious elite universities. I wrote before that the “Kashchei’s needle” of the courtiers lies in the West and they will never go against the will of their true masters. Moreover, 70% of all raw materials extracted from Kazakhstan goes directly to the EU countries and the USA.
The current demarche is in many ways reminiscent of how Kazakhstan constantly abstained from voting at the UN on landmark resolutions proposed by Russia. Thus, in April 2018, the UN Security Council overwhelmingly rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of the aggression of the United States, Great Britain and France against Syria. Then Moscow’s initiative was supported by China and Bolivia, while four countries—Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Equatorial Guinea and Peru—abstained.
Kazakhstan also abstained when resolutions condemning Russia were adopted, instead of supporting it as an official ally. Thus, on December 7, 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on Russia to end the “temporary occupation” of Crimea and immediately stop arms supplies to Ukraine. As a result, 63 countries supported the vote. 17 countries voted against, 62 abstained. Kazakhstan was also among those who abstained.
How, then, is Kazakhstan’s “allied role” expressed? It may be that in July on its territory there will be an exercise of troops of the United States, Canada, Australia and Turkey called “Steppe Eagle” to practice interaction with units of the armed forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan according to NATO standards and to conduct reconnaissance on the ground as a theater of future military operations against Russia and China?
True, the latest actions are no longer false neutrality, but an obvious “friendly” trip to prevent the EAEU from adopting consolidated retaliatory sanctions to aggressive steps by the West.
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