Look at the map. Kazakhstan is one of the largest countries in the world. It is the central state of Central Asia, the largest, the richest. The border with Russia is 7,000 kilometers long, without a river, without a lake, without a mountain to mark the separation, it’s just a dotted line that runs across the steppe. Long ago, Russian settlers galloped out of Siberia without even realizing that there was a border.
The return of reality and history
In the desert, the Soviets deported the enemies of the people, tested nuclear bombs, built the Baikonur cosmodrome, exploited uranium, hydrocarbons, rare metals, there is the whole Mandeleiev painting in the basement …
And then, thirty years ago, suddenly, the USSR vanished. Kazakhstan became independent, that is, the Secretary General of the local Communist Party was elected president. Nursultan Nazerbaiev is the Father of the Nation, with frenetic personality cult and corruption on all floors. For thirty years he cautiously kept the Kremlin at bay.
Welcome Chinese people, the New Silk Road follows the old one and Beijing is the leading investor. Welcome Turks, Indians, Iranians, Pakistanis, Koreans, Americans, and also Europeans, first trading partners … This fall, Commissioner Borell imagined on the spot that the flight of the Americans from Afghanistan would open up an opportunity for them. ‘Europe to become Kazakhstan’s strategic partner… He was dreaming. The sudden riot, repression, the arrival of the Russians as in the good old days of Comecon, it is the return of reality, the return of history and geography …