The recent working visit of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the Russian Federation and his negotiations with Vladimir Putin have left us with a dubious feeling.
On one hand, it is quite understandable why Nursultan Nazarbayev’s successor has chosen Moscow as his first foreign destination after the January “explosion” of the protests – he simply had to do it in order to, first, thank the neighbouring state for the emergency military support and, second, to assure the Kremlin that Kazakhstan remains its loyal ally.
On the other hand, it looks like, during this “ritual” visit, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was out of his elemen. Of course, on the video and the photos made in the course of the negotiations he looks quite sure of himself. However, it was not so.
And this hidden lack of confidence on the part of the Kazakh President has, willingly or not, been reflected in Akorda’s official press-release. To prove it, let us take a look at this document and try to read between the lines.
Let us start by saying that, according to Akorda’s press-release, Tokayev, “during his working visit to Moscow, has had a meeting with President of Russia Vladimir Putin”. In other words, it was not the Russian President who received the President of Kazakhstan in the Kremlin. It was the other way around, i.e. the latter met with the former, and in the middle of nowhere at that.
On to the next. It turns out that, in the course of the meeting, the two neighbouring powers have mainly discussed “the prospects of developing the bilateral relationship and the key issues of the regional cooperation”. It other words, not the January events in Kazakhstan that had forced Tokayev to ask the CSTO (or, to be precise, Vladimir Putin) for emergency military support.
To strengthen the idea that these have been but ordinary negotiations, Akorda devotes about a half of the official press-release to listing all the eleven documents signed in the course of the visit. And, from the titles alone, it is clear that these documents have been signed primarily in order to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
Why do we think so? The thing is that only one of these documents constitutes a cooperation agreement between two big (but still business) structures – Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC NC and Transmashholding JSC. The remaining ten are memorandums on mutual understanding. In other words, declarations of intent to cooperate, nothing more.
Was it so necessary to sign these memorandums in the course of the working visit of the Kazakh President to the Russian Federation? Certainly, it could have been done in a routinely manner. Therefore, we believe that these documents are but a stage curtain with which Akorda is trying to conceal an inconvenient circumstance.
Akorda’s press-release also contains one very curious passage.
Let us quote it.
“The President of Kazakhstan has thanked the Russian leader for the invitation to visit Moscow and for traditional hospitality”.
It looks like, in regard to this issue, Akorda has found itself in a word trap with no way out.
On one hand, it could not say that the idea to visit Russia belonged to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Given the sentiment of the radically-minded Kazakh-speaking citizens, it would be quite dangerous.
On the other hand, however, it would have been just as difficult to explain to Tokayev’s fellow citizens why the President went abroad at the time when the situation in the country was far from being stable.
So, it looks like they have decided to stress that Tokayev was invited by Putin and, being a polite and gentlemanly person, simply could not refuse the invitation.
We see no point in commenting on Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s assessment of the January events in the country apart from pointing out his gratitude towards Vladimir Putin. What was it for? De-facto, for the support provided by a more powerful authoritarian political regime to a less powerful authoritarian political regime. And it looks like Tokayev’s gratitude was quite genuine.
As for the Russian President, he has dropped a curtsy towards Tokayev (quoting) -
“The key role, of course, belonged to the leaders of Kazakhstan, the law-enforcement agencies and the military forces that stay loyal to their cause, their oath and the people of Kazakhstan”.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin has wriggle out of supporting Kassym-Jomart Tokayev regarding the tricky issue of who orchestrated the January events.
This is how they said it.
“Without any exaggeration, Kazakhstan has fallen victim to some international gang that took advantage of the difficult situation inside the country”.
We at KZ.expert believe that, against the statement of the SVR Chief Sergey Naryshkin that his agency knew about the January disturbances in Kazakhstan beforehand and shared this information with the Kazakh colleagues, Putin’s words sound ironic.
To sum up, it looks like Akorda is trying very hard to make the emergency visit of the Kazakh President to the Russian Federation a routine working trip. And it certainly does not want it to look like bowing unto Vladimir Putin, whether by command or for the love of gratefulness.
