The war in Ukraine and the unrest of Armenia over Moscow’s “inaction” against Azerbaijan, clearly staged with a scandal including last Wednesday at the summit of the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty (OTSC or ODKB in its acronym in Russian), the so-called ‘Russian NATO’ held in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, have endangered cohesion within the alliances within the former Soviet space. Kazakhstan is a key piece in all this framework, since it belongs to the CSTO, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (UEE). The incident with the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the rebuffs of the Kazakh President, Kasim-Zhomart Tokayev, towards his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and the calls by the most recalcitrant sectors in Russia to harden and even break relations with Kazakhstan seem having advised the Kremlin to intervene urgently to prevent the collapse of alliances with the most reliable countries in its environment. Standard Related News No Tensions in ‘Russian NATO’: the Armenian Prime Minister refuses to sign a statement before Putin Rafael M. Mañueco The Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan questioned the effectiveness of the Collective Security Treaty Organization For this reason, Putin put all the meat on the grill to convince Tokáyev that his first trip abroad, after his re-election, would be made precisely to Moscow. The Kazakh head of state arrived in the Russian capital on Sunday and yesterday was received in the Kremlin by the Russian president, with whom he also participated in other events for the development of mutual cooperation, including a telematic connection with the Russian Orenburg Forum. Kazakh and the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the beginning of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The top Russian leader also proposed to his Kazakh guest to create a “union” between Russia and Kazakhstan for the export of gas and include Uzbekistan in it. As soon as they met this Monday in the Kremlin, Tokayev told Putin that “for Kazakhstan Russia has always been and continues to be the main strategic partner.” The Russian president responded by agreeing and stressing that “our relations have a special character.” Both took pains to show harmony to emphasize that the recent sour moments in relations are over. Last summer in St. Petersburg, Tokayev told Putin to his face that he will never recognize “quasi-states” like the breakaway Ukrainian republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. That was before Moscow annexed them along with Kherson and Zaporizhia. Later in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), the Kazakh president told his Russian counterpart that his country will always respect the territorial integrity and independence of any state and will abide by the United Nations charter “, a comment that was not liked very much in Moscow. Finally, on Wednesday in Armenia, the Kazakh leader blurted out to Putin that »we must not allow the fraternal Russian and Ukrainian peoples to be at odds for decades or hundreds of years with unresolved grudges«. Tokayev called for the »joint collective search for a peace formula
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism