Status: 10.11.2023, 18:51 PM
By: Bettina Menzel
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday (9 October) with his counterpart from Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. © IMAGO/Pavel Bednyakov/ ITAR-TASS
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart met. Tokayev's speech left room for interpretation.
Astana – Kazakhstan has traditionally been considered a close ally of Russia, but is currently pursuing a kind of seesaw policy. For example, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev supports the EU sanctions against Moscow on the one hand, but presumably helps to circumvent these import restrictions elsewhere. At the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday (9 November), a statement by the Kazakh head of government caused a stir – and offered room for interpretation.
Meeting between Putin and Tokayev: Head of government begins speech in Kazakh
The relationship between Russia and Kazakhstan has many facets. Most recently, Tokayev had made cautious comments on the Ukraine war and pointed out, for example, the importance of the "territorial integrity of all states". While Astana officially supports Western sanctions, Kazakhstan is reportedly transferring household appliances to Russia on a large scale. The trick: Electrical appliances such as washing machines or breast pumps contain the semiconductors sanctioned by the EU, which Russia urgently needs for weapons production.
But Kazakhstan has also recently expanded its relations with Europe. At a meeting between Tokayev and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in September, the two countries emphasised their good cooperation based on partnership. "Kazakhstan is an important partner for us in broadening our supply routes, for example when importing crude oil, in order to make us less dependent on Russian energy supplies," the Federal Chancellor said at the time. The Kazakhs have long feared Russian territorial claims to the north of their country. Back in 2013, Vladimir Putin sparked controversy when he claimed that "Kazakhstan never had sovereignty."
It is against this background that Tokayev's speech during Putin's recent visit can now be seen. In his speech to the Russian delegation, the head of government of the ex-Soviet republic initially decided to speak Kazakh instead of Russian. This is noteworthy because in the diplomatic arena, words and symbolism often have a different weight. As a video shared on platform X (formerly Twitter) shows, the invited guests apparently did not expect this. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin chief Putin and the others tried to find the headphones for the simultaneous translation as quickly as possible. Shortly thereafter, Tokayev switched back to Russian.
What Tokayev's speech in Kazakh says about the relationship with Russia – and what it doesn't
Russian is also an official language in Kazakhstan, as Russians make up the largest minority in the country, accounting for around 20 percent. In his speeches to the nations, Tokayev often addresses his people in both languages. For the head of government, who is supposed to speak a total of five languages, it would have been easy to accommodate his visit. Until now, Russian had usually been spoken at such meetings. It is at least doubtful that the choice of language was pure coincidence. Especially since Tokayev is considered to be diplomatically savvy: After attending an elite school, he graduated from the diplomatic school of the Moscow Institute of International Relations and worked as a diplomat in China, among other things, before his role as president.
The video of the speech went viral on social media, inviting some interpretations. Tokayev's decision to address the Russian guests in his native language, for example, was seen as a "provocation" against the Kremlin chief. Others saw it as a reaction to the fact that the Russian president, apparently, has difficulty correctly pronouncing the name of the Kazakh leader. Earlier, the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, shared a corresponding video. It could be a lack of respect for Tokayev, Gerashchenko suspects. However the incident is interpreted, the facts are not. Rather, Kazakhstan's attitude towards Russia is reflected in economic and military cooperation.
Kazakhstan and Russia are apparently consolidating military and military-technical cooperation
For Russia, oil-rich Kazakhstan had recently become increasingly important because of Western sanctions. Russia may now also be trying to supply gas to Iran via Kazakhstan, according to the US war experts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank in their daily report. On the other hand, Kazakhstan also needs Russia, for example as a transit country, to transport oil to Europe. Political observers therefore saw the offer of oil and gas supplies from Kazakhstan to the EU as a "Trojan horse".
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From the Russian side, however, the incident at the recent meeting between Tokayev and Putin remained uncommented. The meeting between the two leaders was a success, according to a statement by the Russian state news agency Tass on Friday. It was about "strengthening military and military-technical cooperation" between the two neighboring countries, Kremlin chief Putin explained. On November 23, Putin and Tokayev will meet again in the Belarusian capital Minsk. Then at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance of post-Soviet states.