Putin defends sending Russian troops to Kazakhstan as China also offers forces

Moscow deploys forces, amid anti-government protests and tension over Ukraine, to a Central Asian country where Beijing has interests.

Kazakh soldiers patrol a street in the country’s biggest city, Almaty, after violence erupted following protests last week. Picture: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the Kremlin’s decision to send paratroopers to help ­extinguish protests in Kazakhstan, saying it showed Russia wouldn’t allow outside forces to destabilise states in its neighbourhood, as China offered Kazakhstan its own special forces as support.

Addressing a meeting of leaders of a Moscow-led security bloc Monday, Mr Putin said order was returning to Kazakhstan after troops from the ­Collective Security Treaty Organisation poured into the Central Asian ­country to secure airports and key government buildings.

“We understand that events in Kazakhstan are far from the first or last attempt to interfere in the domestic affairs of our states,” Mr Putin said.

The CSTO’s intervention, he said, “showed that we will not allow anyone to stir up the situation at home and will not allow so-called colour revolutions to be executed”, a reference to the kind of uprisings that unseated pro-Russian administrations in Ukraine and Georgia.

The deployment comes as tensions between Moscow and the West reach their highest point in years over Mr Putin’s assertion that Russia has a privileged sphere of influence over the former Soviet Union.

He has positioned tens of thousands of troops along Russia’s border with Ukraine, which has sought closer ties with the West after a pro-Russian president was overthrown by street protests in 2014. Russia and the US began talks over the standoff on Monday.

Mr Putin has also backed the authoritarian leader of Belarus, who has used brutal force to put down mass demonstrations against his rule since 2020.

While the Russian leader has increasingly challenged Western influence in eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics of Central Asia present a different set of challenges for the Kremlin, which has warily watched Chinese power grow in the region. Kazakhstan, an important source of oil and uranium along China’s most important land route to Europe, is especially important to both.

Russian state news agency TASS reported on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had ­offered Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi Chinese law enforcement and special-operations forces to help assure stability in Kazakhstan.

“We intend to boost our bilateral co-operation to prevent foreign meddling and the protection of the national political system and security between the two countries,” TASS reported foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin as saying.

 

If realised, the offer could place troops from Russia and China in a country where they have both been competing for influence.

Beijing has largely stood aside as Moscow worked to retain its historical role as the dominant political power over the former ­Soviet republics in the region, while Moscow has tolerated China’s own growing economic influence through its investments in trade and infrastructure.

Kazakhstan, for its part, for years has successfully balanced its interests in Moscow and Beijing, both of which Kazakh authorities see as strategic partners. Under former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan managed to bring Chinese foreign investment into the country while maintaining membership in Russian security and economic bodies.

To some extent, Russia and China are reading from the same script on the unrest in Almaty and other Kazakh cities. They have united in recent years behind their shared desire to limit Western ­influence, decrying any attempt to mirror the colour revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.

Mr Putin has worked to limit Western influence at home and across much of the former Soviet Union by painting popular demonstrations against corruption, poverty and authoritarian rule as a Western plot to weaken Moscow, without presenting much evidence. In the wake of the 2014 Ukraine revolution, the US rushed to aid a new pro-Western Ukrainian government that was installed by protesters. The financial and ­initially non-lethal military aid outraged Moscow, which saw Ukraine as part of its strategic backyard.

Similarly, China last week ­described the unrest in Kazakhstan as a domestic matter, and Beijing urged on Monday what it described as outside forces to keep out.

But political analysts see Central Asia as a sphere in which interests may clash as China’s economic influence continues to expand, with Beijing taking a growing interest in security in the country. It previously has raised the idea of bringing in private ­security companies to protect ­Chinese assets in Kazakhstan, a move that would likely rankle Moscow’s view of itself as the ­region’s security hegemon.

So far, just over 2000 troops from Russia and its allies have ­arrived in Kazakhstan, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told the CSTO meeting on Monday, and Mr Putin said he ­expected the situation would quickly stabilise.

Soldiers with demining equipment were on the main Republic Square in Almaty, which was the centre of the violence over the past week. They had also cordoned off the President’s residence there as well as the mayor’s office, TASS said.

For residents, internet connections were still tenuous across Kazakhstan, though state television and radio was working again throughout most of the country.

In Almaty, however, food and other necessities were increasingly in short supply.

“The stores have no eggs, bread or flour,” said a resident of Almaty, who said she was looking for supplies to bake bread at home.

“The storekeeper here won’t open the door to strangers and only talks to the customers she knows personally through a small window.”

The Wall Street Journal