KAZAKHSTAN The dispute over the largest country in Central Asia

During his visit to Tashkent, Putin called Uzbekistan “the largest country in Central Asia,” even though Kazakhstan is six times larger. And in Astana there are those who shout provocation. In the background is the “cooling” of relations with Moscow in a strategic area for trade routes between China and Europe.

Astana () – Vladimir Putin’s statement during the final press conference of his visit to Tashkent a few days ago, when he called Uzbekistan “the largest country in the Central Asian region”, caused much discussion. Given that Kazakhstan is at least six times the territorial size of the Uzbeks, one wondered if the Russian president’s intention was to deal a blow to Astana by relegating the Kazakhs to a lesser role due to their less explicit support for Russia’s policies. . In fact, Putin’s statement came in response to a question about the effects of US sanctions, which pressure former Soviet states in the region to withdraw from collaborative projects with Moscow.

The declaration stressed that “Uzbekistan is not only the largest country in Central Asia, but the second in population after Russia, with its 37 million inhabitants”, evidently referring to all the countries that separated after the end of the USSR, without mentioning Ukraine, whose population figures are now weighed by the territorial conflict with the occupied areas, and which is not considered by the Russians as an independent country, but only as a part of Russia. And the strength of the Uzbeks lies in distinguishing themselves from the “weak and insecure states, especially those in which dozens of NGOs operate with foreign vultures”, to which they evidently do not disperse the essential laws against “foreign agents.” On the other hand, Uzbekistan offers a good example of “an authority that feels capable of realizing the interests of its people and its state, without allowing itself to be disoriented by the squawks from abroad,” Putin insisted.

According to Kazakh expert in international politics Anuar Bakhitkhanov, reported by Orda.kz, “the allusion to the territories of our countries, in the context of opposition to the West, cannot be considered accidental.” He recalls that Putin has already declared on other occasions that “Kazakhstan does not have a true state of its own,” and Tashkent’s words constitute “a stone thrown into our garden, a provocation for our country to definitively choose between Russia and the West.” In fact, it is well known that Astana’s policy tends to seek the maximum balance between China, Russia and Western countries, which clearly does not satisfy the Kremlin’s expectations.

For his part, political scientist Valerij Volodin, who lives in Almaty, does not believe that Putin’s provocation was deliberate and artfully prepared, but rather that “he simply used Soviet terminology, when Kazakhstan was confused with the territories of Russia itself and other countries.” countries. The double definition of “Kazakhstan and Central Asia”, using the term Srednjaja, was often used to emphasize the “Russomania” of the republic in Alma-Ata, the capital of the time, in relation to the other “Asians”; It was the first president Nursultan Nazarbaev who rejected this distinction in 1992, to join in the single space of Asia Tsentralnaja, an election that was confirmed in Tashkent in 1993 along with the other countries of the region. According to Volodin, Putin continues to consider Kazakhstan a “Russian and not Asian territory”, thus leaving Uzbekistan the primacy of the other “eastern” partners.

Kazakh economist Petr Svojk explains in turn that “the progressive cooling between Moscow and Astana also depends on the fact that today Russia is not the most convenient partner for Kazakhstan, although it remains the main one in terms of trade volume.” The Kazakhs are aware that they have a central role in the development of future trade routes between China, South Asia, Europe and the Middle East, which would relegate Russia to an increasingly secondary factor. In turn, Uzbekistan plays an important role, thanks to its superiority in number of inhabitants and in various energy and logistics sectors, but it must support Russia in its joint pressure on Kazakhstan, lest it in turn be diminished. This is why Putin’s second trip has ideally brought together Moscow, Beijing and Tashkent, to get everyone to look away from the “Kazakh backyard.”