How Russia’s neighbours are falling out of love with the Kremlin

Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine has united the West. Nato has been strengthened and there has been much support for the sanctions against the Kremlin and its supporters. Public opinion in the UK is firmly behind the Ukrainian people in their suffering, even if many remain wary of direct military entanglement. For the countries bordering Russia, however, the calculations are different, and nowhere can more ambivalence be seen than in Kazakhstan, the leading economy in Central Asia. Although it is the ninth largest country in the world, Kazakh foreign policy has long been dominated by the need to carefully manage relations with its two even bigger neighbours: Russia and China. Its border with Russia stretches for 4,750 miles – longer than the distance from London to Florida. Russia is its third largest trading partner and 16 per cent of its people are ethnic Russians. There are deep historical and cultural links, shaping each country’s view of the other.