KAZAKHISTAN-RUSSIA-UKRAINE Moscow wants Astana to apologize for the yurt of contention in Buča

Russian troops are accused of war crimes in the Ukrainian town. The Kazakhs respond to the Kremlin that it is a private initiative. Russian nationalists have their sights set on northern Kazakhstan, where a Russian-speaking community is concentrated. The yurt to mock Putin.

Moscow () – In an initiative supported by the Kazakhstan embassy in Ukraine, the authorities have installed the “Yurt of Unbreakability” in the central square of the Ukrainian city of Buča, a typical Central Asian nomadic tent or tent where rice “plov”, tea and sweets to regain strength and warm up. Cell phones can also be recharged and popular songs are sung, especially in these days of sub-zero temperatures.

The initiative, an innocent folkloric-humanitarian installation, is provoking increasingly resentful reactions from Moscow, with threatening notes sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Kazakh authorities try to avoid by talking about a “local initiative” not directly organized by Astana.

The city on the outskirts of kyiv, the scene of tragic clashes and public massacres, is a very sensitive subject for Russians because of the images that have spread around the world of peaceful inhabitants savagely murdered and scattered in the streets. According to Moscow, it would only be a farce of Ukrainian Russophobic propaganda. That is why the spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, demanded an “official comment” from Kazakhstan to distance itself from the Yurt, which is considered a kind of affront to Moscow.

The response of the Kazakh representative Ajbek Smadjarov is a typical example of “oriental cunning”, where he explains that the Yurt is an “initiative of private Kazakh companies, which we could not prohibit… they did everything themselves and we did not see anything wrong. The yurt is a traditional dwelling for nomads, it can be quickly assembled and disassembled, and it is ecologically excellent.” The Kazakhs consider that “it is not necessary to comment on it and, in any case, we are proud of all the yurts that can be be in the world”.

Kazakhstan, on the other hand, has been trying to maintain a neutral position since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, albeit with openly critical expressions such as those of President Tokaev, expressed directly and publicly to “big brother” Putin. Astana cannot take sides too openly in favor of kyiv due to the strong dependence on Moscow in many sectors and to maintain its “multi-vector” political line, as the entire Kazakh political leadership has repeatedly stated.

However, the territorial integrity of the countries is essential for Kazakhstan, where tensions with Russia over the border regions continue to be very high, in a situation very similar to that of Ukraine. In fact, Tokaev’s criticisms concerned the non-recognition of the occupied and annexed republics, beginning with the Crimea, rather than military operations as such. That is why the “unbreakable” yurt has ended up acquiring a much more symbolic meaning than the festive “nomadic welcome”, a sign of the presence of “free men” in the territory. Precisely the meaning of “Kazakhs” and the local equivalent of “Cossacks”.

At first, the yurt seemed to be just one of the many demonstrations taking place in the streets during the New Year holidays, despite the dramatic situation of the ongoing war. But the Russian protests had the effect of attaching political significance to the Kazakh shops, a “moral triumph” for the anti-Russian Eurasian alliance. The Yurt’s Ukrainian and Kazakh songs are now consistently interspersed with anti-Putin refrains, with ironic rather than polemical overtones, such as the simple “Putin – la-la-la!” to point out the empty words of the Kremlin dictator, which hurt the aggressor more than the American Himars missiles.

The cry of defiance and mockery is not only a spontaneous reaction of the people, but a historical quote. In 1934, Nazi Germany’s top officials were enraged when Jewish emigrants in the United States organized marches to mock Hitler, and demanded an official apology from Washington. Just as the Russian leadership on behalf of Astana now claims in front of the Yurt of the new year 2023, which is no longer only considered “unshakable”, but also “cornerstone” of a new world.