It is not clear yet how the unrest in Kazakhstan will evolve, and what role Nursultan Nazarbayev will play in them, but it seems certain that the protests will alter the historical legacy he had imagined he would leave.
Share of “Russians” in Kazakhstan’s regions and cities.
There have been no serious separatist movements in Kazakhstan since the country became independent in 1991.
Do not to be surprised if most that shaded area will have a few “visitors” from the north in upcoming hours.
Interesting thing about Russian deployment to #Kazakhstan that Kyrgyz President Bakiyev made a similar appeal in similar circumstances in 2010 and was rejected.
Armenian PM Pashinyan also asked for the CSTO help during the II Karabakh war but Moscow decided to ignored him.
Tajikistan's Alfa Group, the special forces of the GKNB, are at Aini airbase expect to fly to Kazakhstan as well.
For the Kremlin, the situation in Kazakhstan is not going to be easy.
Kazakhstan’s population is mostly secular, but huge violence will attract Islamists & undermine the neighboring Central Asian regimes. Add to this the shaky situation in Afghanistan after America’s withdrawal.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are chronically unstable and so is potentially Uzbekistan with a large Tajik minority.
We must keep in mind the protests in #Kazakhstan aren't centrally coordinated and there are many lists of demands floating around.
What's common in most of the lists is cost of living issues.
It is important to note Russia conducted two offensive military operations and an expeditionary one when it was economically weakest this decade (2014-2015).
At the moment, the country is in much better position to tackle sanctions, and support a larger military ops.
Hate it or love it, but CSTO troops will not solve Kazakhstan’s domestic grievances.
Turkey and the UAE have been at loggerheads because of Turkish allegations that the Emirates had funded a failed 2016 military attempt to topple President Erdogan and Emirati objections to Turkish support for political Islam, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood.
Turkey and the UAE have fought military and political proxy battles in Libya, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean, and France, where they were on opposite sides of the divide.
Furthermore, Ankara supported Qatar and expanded its military presence in the Gulf state during the 3.5 year-long UAE-Saudi-led diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar that was lifted in January.
Pakistani political and military leaders have vowed to eradicate ultra-conservative religious extremism that drove a mob to torture, brutally lynch a Sri Lankan national, and burn his body in the eastern city of Sialkot.
235 people arrested in connection with the killing.
Kazakhstan's some TV channels started to show "doctored" footage from the events.
If you are interested in Kazakhstan's political sphere, read more Zhanaozen massacre.
In 2011, more than 14 protestors were killed by police in the town as people clashed with police on the country's Independence Day, with unrest spreading to other towns.
According to Amnesty International, the massacre was a stark illustration of the country's poor human rights record.
And guess what...
Tony Blair gave damage-limitation advice to Kazakhstan's president and helped him craft a response which was later delivered before Western media.
Iranian support for Arab militias has long threatened Iran’s foes, unable to develop an effective counterstrategy.
A string of recent events suggests that the usefulness of at least some of the militias in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Palestine is fading as their popularity reduced and relations with Tehran encounter headwinds.
Of course, Tehran is not going to dump its non-state Arab allies.
They remain too powerful a military force to defeat and valuable leverage of Iranian regional power in Lebanon and Iraq even if they may be past the peak of their lifecycle.