Posted on 08/04/2022 7:57:14 PM PDT by Cronos
Kazakhstan has significantly boosted its defence spending while seeking to strengthen ties with China and Nato nations amid anxieties that Moscow could expand its geopolitical ambitions beyond Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported, citing a Kazakh official.
The ex-Soviet state is committing an additional Kazakhstani tenge (KZT) 441bn ($918mn) to its defence budget, marking a nearly 1.5-fold rise from last year’s budget of $1.7bn, the newspaper reported. Part of the money would go to increasing Kazakhstan’s military reserves, according to a the quoted senior official, who added that Kazakhstan has learned lessons from Ukraine’s fierce resistance to the Russian invasion of the country that began in late February. The army must be reformed to make it more mobile and skilled at combatting hybrid warfare that mixes conventional warfare with cyberwarfare, disinformation and election meddling, he was further quoted as saying.
While some in the West say Russia’s military has been exposed as a paper tiger, one senior official from a Central Asian country told the WSJ that fear was only growing over Russia’s ambitions. “It’s one thing when they deal with so many others and they have Eastern Europeans and Ukraine to spend their time abusing,” the official said. “Imagine if they don’t have Ukraine to abuse. Are we going to be next?”
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has complicated ties between Russia and arguably its closest ally aside from Belarus. Kazakhs have long feared, even prior to the Ukraine invasion, that Vladimir Putin could attempt to annex northern Kazakhstan, similarly to how Russia grabbed Crimea in Ukraine. Around one-fifth of Kazakh citizens are ethnic Russians, largely residing in northern parts of Kazakhstan. Russian nationalists have long insisted that Kazakhstan’s north is Russian land. In 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea, Putin remarked that Kazakhstan had no history of statehood until the demise of the Soviet Union.
The jitters felt among some Kazakhs as to Russia’s ambitions were brought home on July 26 when bne IntelliNews picked up on rumours that Russia was moving troops to a part of Siberia near Kazakhstan. The chatter appeared to have been triggered by Russian and Chinese troop movements in relation to an International Army Games military drill in Zabaikalsk in Russia's Far East.
The WSJ report explored claims that Kazakhstan has been drawing closer to China, the US and Turkey in recent months, but Nur-Sultan has several times repeated lately that Kazakhstan would take care to fulfil its obligations to Russia as an ally.
When civil unrest broke out across Kazakhstan in January and speculation arose that President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev could be toppled in an associated coup, Tokayev approved the deployment of around 1,500-2000 Russian troops under a Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) pact. Their arrival helped to secure the prospects of his administration as the last of the unrest was quelled.
Kazakhstan has refused to take a side in the ongoing Ukraine war, declining to offer any official support to either Ukraine or Russia. Moreover, speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) alongside Putin in June, Tokayev said the Central Asian nation would not recognise the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics as independent states. Putin has called for the “liberation” of the pro-Moscow separatist so-called republics as the main excuse for sending troops into Ukraine.
After the Kazakh leader’s comments, Russia alleged oil spill concerns in announcing that it would halt oil flows in the CPC pipeline, which ships the vast majority of Kazakh oil exports via the Russian port of Novorossiysk. The measure was, however, cancelled after Kazakh authorities announced plans to block sanctions-dodging parallel imports to Russia via Kazakhstan’s customs checkpoints.
After the Ukraine conflict began, Kazakhstan banned anti-war demonstrations that might anger Moscow, but also made it unlawful to publicly display the “Z” sign that has become a pro-war symbol in Russia.
I’m beginning to enjoy this. Did I say that?
Traitor Joe and the RINOs will quickly send them $500 billion and your kids over there to die in a new war.
RE: The title: {Putin wants to slice up Kazakhstan now that he’s lost Ukraine war}
How did they come up with this conclusion? The war is still being fought even a I write this.
Putins 3 day drags on to over 160 days. Yet according to his toadies on FR Ukraine’s military is collapsing and for some strange reason the all powerful Russian army is not advancing and is stalemated. Kinda strange.
An example of how pathetic the Ukrainian defense is:
https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1555303032765702151?s=20&t=Wx3YEzkBKDGybnx9QuZ_Rg
TEXTBOOK AMBUSH: UKR Signals Intelligence identified a meeting of Russian field commanders, and laid an ambush on their return. Note that the Anti-Tank Guided missile was sighted on the approach to a turn, when the lead vehicle slowed to make the curve, they fired.
6 Russian commanders and 5 regular soldiers were on their way back from a meeting at a command and control center.
The Ukrainians had prepared an ambush.
All 11 are reported to be dead.
[Kazakhstan has significantly boosted its defence spending while seeking to strengthen ties with China and Nato nations]
Your addition to the title is delusional, Russia hasn’t lost the UKraine war by a long shot. Right now I would say if they are winning on all fronts.
.
You're nuts. The Russians will control everything east of the Napier river and the entire Black Sea coastline by the time this is over...at minimum. The ONLY thing that could prevent that is unconditional Ukrainian surrender.
Ukraine headed toward being a rump, landlocked state.
People like you don't live in the real world.
Yep, what you said...
https://sonar21.com/contact/
From Johnson:
When you consider the fact that Ukraine’s armed forces outnumbered the Russians who invaded by a factor of 3 to 1, then you have to ask–exactly what “advantage” does the outnumbered Russian army enjoy? The answer is simple–Russia has air supremacy, superior intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities. It is targeting Ukrainian forward command centers and destroying senior brigade and regimental commanders. This strategy decapitates the chain of command on the frontlines and subjects the troops crouching in trenches and bunkers to seemingly unrelenting barrages of missiles and artillery shells. The result is simple–it demoralizes the troops.
###
Russia’s attack in the Donetsk Republic, which is being led on the ground by the militias from Donetsk and Luhansk, has intensified over the last two weeks. Ukraine’s casualties have doubled. The Russians are killing around 1000 a day. For readers in the United States this means that Ukraine has suffered more KIA in one week than the United States forces in Iraq lost during the entire conflict in Iraq (2003-2014). The Ukrainian army cannot sustain such losses and remain combat effective.
Let’s take the Ontario peninsula.
/s
Zelensky is channeling the fictional Black Knight.
.
RUSSIA STORMS UKRAINE DEFENCES IN DONBASS, ZELENSKY ADMITS OUTGUNNED, SPEAKS OF 'HELLISH' CONDITION
Something tells me that the horribly oppressive Communist Russia is in complete shock at losing this war. Perhaps we should lighten up on those sanctions a bit?
Looks like the Russian version of Ottawalks.
Moscowalks?
What universe are you living in???
You seem pleased by this.
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