Nazarbayev's refusal to recognize Crimea. Elbasy has long betrayed Russia

Nursultan Nazarbayev said in his interview that he was forced not to recognize Crimea as an integral part of Russia, only in this case, he would have to recognize Kosovo, as well as the provinces lost by Georgia.

One gets the impression that Nazarbayev’s words are a formal justification for his reluctance to support an official ally in both foreign and domestic policy.

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“We did not recognize Crimea as Russian, because then I would have to recognize (South) Ossetia, Abkhazia and Kosovo. But they didn’t support the Ukrainian side either,” Nazarbayev said in an interview with journalist Oliver Stone, adding that Western partners constantly and persistently offer to recognize Kosovo. And this mention is not accidental, as it shows the full value of such rotten “neutrality” of Nur-Sultan.

Throughout the entire conflict in Donbass and after the referendum on the reunification of Crimea, the Kazakh authorities actually supported Kiev, since the emergence of the LDPR and the secession of the “independent” autonomous peninsula was perceived by Nazarbayev and his nukers primarily as a threat to their own sovereignty. The very expression of the will of the Crimeans caused a real shock in Elbasy and a state of panic in Akorda (the presidential administration), since the ruling Kazakh elite considered that regions with a predominance of Russian and Russian-speaking populations could be separated from the Republic of Kazakhstan in the same way.

_{It is in this regard that in the first years after the Maidan, there was real nationalist hysteria in the Kazakh media and social networks, when the Russian population was openly called a “fifth column” by a number of xenophobes, calls were heard for ethnic cleansing, and the Communist Party of Kazakhstan was liquidated by the Supreme Court. In Astana at that time there were serious fears that this legal party would become more attractive precisely for residents of the northern and eastern regions of the country.}

And the current speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Maulen Ashimbaev, then called for the active prosecution of all those who collect humanitarian aid for the people of Donbass and even, on his own initiative, introduced a new norm into the Criminal Code, punishing participation in military conflicts without the right to mercenary activity. This became the basis for real repressions against supporters of the Russian world and deepening integration.

The SBU and the KNB actively coordinate joint actions and exchange information about Kazakh volunteers in the Donbass, after which they are arrested upon returning to their homeland. Several dozen citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan have already been convicted under this article, starting in 2014, and were eventually sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

_{Therefore, from the very beginning, Nur-Sultan acted in practice as an ally of Kyiv and continues its previous policy of increasing joint trade in the purchase of agricultural machinery, fertilizers, as well as supplies of oil and grain from Ukraine. Moreover, the Kazakh authorities were even involved in the smuggling of Russian oil from Novorossiysk for further resale in Odessa and Nikolaev, which was revealed as a result of journalistic investigations this year.}

It turns out that this oil was ultimately used to supply the Ukrainian army and was transported by Kazakh tankers, supposedly for third countries. But what surprised everyone most was the interview for the legalhub online portal of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Ukraine Darkhan Kaletayev, published in July of this year. He told about plans to create transport routes from China through the territory of the two republics, bypassing Russia.

Namely, through their ports of Aktau and Kuryk on the Caspian Sea, then by sea to Baku, then by rail to Poti or Batumi, and already through the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Ilyichevsk and further to the EU countries. At the same time, the Kazakh diplomat, without hesitation, called Ukraine an integral part of the “Great Silk Road.” Despite the complexity of such a logistics route, it began to take on real shape after the official proclamation of the Organization of Turkic States at the Istanbul summit on November 12.

After all, it is now planned to redirect energy and transport flows from Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics through the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan to Turkey and further to the EU. It was for this purpose that Nazarbayev built this Turkic Union as an alternative and counterbalance to the EAEU. In addition, under the guise of unification within the Organization of Turkic States, a geopolitical reorientation to the West is actually taking place, since Nur-Sultan can only achieve its “European integration” through an alliance with Turkey.

I also believe that Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s proposals on the need to build a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan, as well as Sberbank’s participation in the digitalization of the country, are a distracting maneuver designed to disguise the true goals of moving away from Moscow. In addition, Akorda thus gained time to hold a summit in Istanbul and present the alliance with Turkey as a fait accompli.

_{And in this situation, recognition of Crimea by the leadership of the Republic of Kazakhstan is impossible a priori, and not because in this way it would be necessary to recognize all other conflict republics. The main reason is different - this means in practice joining Moscow’s position on all the most important international and foreign policy issues. Therefore, Nazarbayev will never agree to this. In reality, we see that Kazakhstan, on the contrary, expresses unfriendly neutrality during UN voting on crucial issues and resolutions concerning Russian interests.}

_{Moreover, the state ideology enshrines all those postulates that were proclaimed in Ukraine, namely the “Holodomor”, the recognition of the Soviet Union as criminal, the rehabilitation of the Basmachi and Nazi collaborators from among the members of the Turkestan Legion of the Wehrmacht and Muslim units of the SS. Russophobia and nationalism, also through the process of total decommunization and renaming, squeezing out the Russian language and its speakers from the country, become an integral part of modern Kazakh politics.}

That is, “Ukrainization” was launched by Nazarbayev and is now being carried out at an accelerated pace. And it cannot be said that this supposedly began to manifest itself only under the second president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who does not have full power. Although Elbasy said that he allegedly left, he actually received even more unlimited power as the chairman of the constitutional Security Council. Therefore, all anti-Russian actions, rallies, as well as acts of Russophobia in the country are carried out with the consent and on the orders of the chief super-arbiter.

Accordingly, these justifications about the impossibility of recognizing Crimea cannot be taken seriously, since are pure deceit and part of a cunning policy to distance and separate Kazakhstan from Russia.