Page 70 - bne magazine July 2022_20220704

70 I Eurasia bne July 2022
All smiles. The question is whether the remarks made by Tokayev (left) held any surprises for Putin. Kremlin.ru
Face to face with Putin, Kazakhstan’s president refuses to recognise Ukraine breakaway republics
Peter Baunov in Nur-Sultan
Face to face with Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Kassym- Jomart Tokayev on June 17 caused some surprise when he stated that Kazakhstan did not recognise the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) breakaway territories of Ukraine as independent republics. He described them as "quasi-state formations".
His remarks, made during an appearance with the Russian president at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), amounted to a reaffirmation of Kazakhstan’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but
www.bne.eu
some in the audience will have taken it as rather a bold reaffirmation given who Tokayev was sharing the stage with.
The Kazakh president, meanwhile, also apparently refused to accept an order of merit of the Russian Federation named in honour of a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexander Nevsky. Accepting the order would have been
a symbolic acceptance of a token of allegiance with Russia, though Tokayev has previously refused similar accolades from other countries.
Tokayev’s perceived boldness was met with speculation from observers that
the Kremlin was not going to like his “disobedience”, especially given how the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in January showed support for Tokayev’s continued rule over Kazakhstan by deploying troops that helped quell the nationwide unrest that broke out in the Central Asian nation.
Indeed, one of the first developments
in relation to Russia and Kazakhstan that occurred on June 17, shortly after Tokayev’s words, was an announcement that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) would be periodically halting
oil shipments in order to allow the