... handling relations with all partners, so as to maintain good relations, while also protecting Kazakhstan’s interests. Politically, Kazakhstan is deeply tied to Russia, which has been explicitly shown in January 2022, when it requested the intervention of CSTO and Russian peacekeepers to face an attempted rebel
takeover
. The same can be said on other politically relevant positions, such as collaborating on the
creation
of an integrated digital information system for EAEU member states. Economically,...
... Beijing sees consensus in the Eurasian space as the elaboration of a common development strategy bolstered economically.
Third
, blurring the SCO’s regional security functionality means that one cannot always see a clear boundary between the SCO and the CSTO, especially since a number of countries, including Russia, are members of both structures. Moreover, if we take the Central Asian track, it is the CSTO that remains the real guarantor of high-level security for the countries of the region in the ...
... emphatically stressed by the two leaders on the sidelines of the
SCO summit
in September 2022. Kyrgyzstan is a member of most regional integration associations where Russia is involved, be it political, trade-economic (CIS, EEU, SCO) or military-technical (CSTO). It is no coincidence that Mr. Zhaparov paid his first foreign visit as head of state, in February 2021, to Russia.
In the meantime, it’s worth noting that it was in Kyrgyzstan that most eye-catching political actions both in support and against ...
... raises questions for us, the answers of which seemed obvious until quite recently. Among them is the problem of such phenomena as permanent alliances and allied relations. It is no secret to anyone that the behaviour of Moscow’s formal allies in the CSTO and the Eurasian Economic Union amid the current conditions raises questions in Russia.
Among its opponents, it raises hopes that the presence of these associations is no longer an advantage, but a problem for Russia’s external and defence policy....
... building up contacts with Tajikistan while simultaneously controlling its foreign trade with its key partner, the U.S. wants to limit Tajikistan’s bilateral relations with Russia.
Finally, as a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Tajikistan intends to view this organization as a resource in case Dushanbe loses control of the situation in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). January 2022 set a precedent of resorting to the CSTO’s forces in Kazakhstan to protect ...
... with certainty how radical the coming changes will be and to what extent they will affect not only Europe
Several international institutions for cooperation, integration and collective security - primarily the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) - were created in a historical period that, apparently, has finally come to an end.
Now we cannot say with certainty how radical the coming changes will be and to what extent they will affect not only Europe,...
... turmoil in Kazakhstan
dealt a
significant blow
to Ankara’s ambitions in post-Soviet Eurasia and the “Turkic World.” In quick order, Kazakhstan’s President managed to gain control over the situation in close coordination with Russia and the CSTO. The episode vividly underscored the importance that Russia attaches to the post-Soviet space as its primary zone of vital national security interests. It also highlighted the reality that, in today’s multipolar world, Turkey, despite all the talk ...
... Sino-Russian bloc is prone to endure for the coming decades or so
Kazakhstan: a key player and a logistic hub for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the largest country in Central Asia that has practised a multi-vector foreign policy with ease, the most advanced in terms of political and economic reforms among other countries in Central Asia, and often the main avenue for negotiations on important ...
... power struggle which has likely sounded the death-knell of the Nazarbayevs in domestic Kazakhstan politics.
Andrey Kortunov:
Political Extremists, Gangs First Ones to Gain from Kazakh Turmoil
With the Kazakh government stabilized and the Russian-led CSTO force now withdrawing, the political risk scenarios surrounding Kazakhstan domestic political, social, economic, and geopolitical future are still just as opaque, complex, and institutionally multivariate. Tokayev is confirmed as still President ...
The Preliminary Lessons of the Crisis in Kazakhstan
With the current situation in Kazakhstan remaining unclear and reports on last-minute developments being incomplete and controversial, many fundamental questions about the unfolding crisis so far have not received clear and convincing answers. Were the street protests purely spontaneous or had they been carefully planned and skillfully organized? Does the public outrage and mutiny have exclusively domestic roots or is it linked to powerful foreign...