In relation to Crimea, “union Kazakhstan” turned out to be more cowardly than Norway
In Russia, on March 16, they celebrated the sixth anniversary of the referendum on the annexation of Crimea to Russia, in which the absolute majority of residents of the peninsula voted for the return of their autonomous republic to their historical homeland.
However, Kazakhstan, which is an official ally, as usual, refrained from congratulating on this occasion and even pointedly ignored this significant date.
It’s somehow completely unsightly on the part of Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) given the fact that Norwegian politicians no longer doubt the ownership of the peninsula, and China even sends delegations of various ministries and departments to Simferopol to conclude many agreements and contracts on joint economic activities. But China is not a member of the EAEU and the CSTO, unlike Kazakhstan, which raises even more questions and bewilderment about this ally’s position.
But what seems strange from the outside actually has its own explanation. The fact is that Nur-Sultan does not de jure recognize Crimea as part of Russia and even in textbooks and maps indicates it in the old fashioned way as the territory of Ukraine. There was even a curious case when Kazakh officials at the international exhibition EXPO 2017, held in the capital of Kazakhstan, were even forced to urgently change their stand with a geographical map, where Crimea was correctly indicated as a subject of the Russian Federation.
For the ruling elite in what was then Astana, this referendum on March 16, 2014 was like a bolt from the blue. Thus, Nursultan Nazarbayev even used the beginning of the Maidan in Kyiv in December 2013 and the activation of his court nationalists led by Mukhtar Taizhan, who advocated the closure of Baikonur, as a reason to torpedo the initial political version of the EAEU. A de facto confederation was rejected on the grounds that it would lead to political destabilization by disaffected people.
Having already calmed down, Elbasy (Leader of the Nation) at his headquarters in Akorda (presidential administration), having agreed with the results of the coup in Ukraine, was simply struck to the core by the possibility that the citizens of Crimea were able to express their will in the form of such a referendum and return to composition of Russia, rejecting the Maidan. He himself and the court camarilla were then seized with an animal fear that something similar could happen in Kazakhstan.
Therefore, from the very beginning, Astana refused to recognize the peninsula as an integral part of Russia, in fact supporting Ukraine’s position on eastern Ukraine, where the Kyiv junta unleashed a civil war. It was then that the current Speaker of the Senate, Maulen Ashimbaev, and then a Mazhilis deputy from the ruling Nur-Otan party, initiated the adoption of new norms in the Criminal Code, punishing fellow citizens for participating as volunteers on the side of the people of Donbass. As a result of this, more than 30 Kazakhstanis were imprisoned over these six years.
The same figure demanded the organization of repression against the citizens of the country, who began to collect humanitarian aid in all cities, and put forward ideas of political and economic integration with both the EU and China, as opposed to the in-depth development of the EAEU project, since he imagined joining Russia as a result of this .
On the contrary, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Baglan Mailybaev, who advocated further close cooperation with Russia and recognition of Crimea, was arrested on trumped-up charges in 2017 and convicted for allegedly disclosing state secrets.
With the election of the new President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in 2019, the situation also did not change much. Although in an interview with Deutsche Welle journalists, the head of state tried not to use the term annexation, in fact recognizing the peninsula as part of Russia. “We do not call what happened in Crimea annexation... What happened, happened. Annexation is too heavy a word when applied to Crimea,” said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Then he became the object of criticism from Kazakh nationalists and liberals, but in general this statement did not lead to anything.
In fact, it was just a nod to Moscow and nothing more, since Nur-Sultan is not going to officially recognize Crimea as an integral part of Russia, since its beloved Western partners may become very tense about this. We must not forget that in December 2015 in Astana, an agreement on enhanced partnership and cooperation between the European Union and its member states, on the one hand, and the Republic of Kazakhstan, on the other hand, was signed and ratified by the European Parliament in 2020.
Washington also firmly holds the Kazakh elite by the throat through the seized assets of the National Fund in Europe in the case of the Moldovan oligarch Stati, as well as through corruption compromising evidence against the country’s top officials who have their capital in offshore zones and in the West. In addition, ideologically the Kazakh ruling layer, together with Ukraine, considers the events in the east of this republic and in Crimea a threat to itself and the notorious “sovereignty”.
Moreover, through official channels in Kazakhstan they intend to launch liberal reforms of Western Ukrainian style, which was expressed not only in the form of recognition of the common “Holodomor”, but also in the fact that Ambassador Darkhan Kaletayev organized a meeting last year with oligarch Margulan Seisembayev, a deputy from the ruling party Nur-Otan Nurzhan Altaev and an entire delegation of “public” with Mikheil Saakashvili. Now this group will, through established structures in Kazakhstan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan with the participation of Mishiko, teach entrepreneurs and officials about reforms.
Naturally, in such a situation, there can be no talk of any official recognition by Nur-Sultan of the annexation of Crimea to Russia, just as one should not expect congratulations on the next anniversary of the referendum from the top officials of the state.
Inside Kazakhstan, current politicians and representatives of elite groups also cannot speak positively on this issue, bearing in mind the conviction of Baglan Mailybaev, his assistant Nikolai Galikhin, as well as Tokhtar Tuleshov, considered a pro-Russian oligarch, who was accused of nothing less than an attempted coup.
For the same purpose, in September last year, the well-known public figure Ermek Taychibekov, who actively advocates the integration of Kazakhstan with Russia, was arrested. The political field has also been thoroughly cleansed in the country. For example, the oldest Communist Party of Kazakhstan was liquidated by the Supreme Court in 2015, because, according to Akorda, its activists could support similar processes within the republic.
Therefore, at the moment, supporters of developing cooperation with Russia and deepening integration within the EAEU simply do not have their own political representation and association.
It seems that ordinary Kazakhstanis support and respect the residents of Crimea for their choice, but the position of the authorities in Nur-Sultan on this issue once again shows what kind of “allies” they really are.
Therefore, one should not be surprised when the Kazakh delegation, instead of support, expresses neutrality during voting at the UN on crucial issues and resolutions concerning Russia’s interests.
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