Putin faces Kazakh backlash amid tense summit in Astana
The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin stated during his visit to Astana that Kazakhstan is a "Russian-speaking country." Putin and his delegation were surprised when President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev began speaking in his native language during the briefing, despite being proficient in Russian.
During the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit, Vladimir Putin threatened to use Oreshnik ballistic missiles to strike decision-making centers in Ukraine.
Putin surprised by the response
"If the country we are currently at war with becomes a nuclear power, what will we do? In such a case, we will use all, I want to emphasize, absolutely all means of destruction available in Russia. We will not allow it. We will monitor their every move," Putin declared in the capital of Kazakhstan.
An important point of the CSTO meeting was the session of the Collective Security Council, attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia.
Fourteen documents were signed, including a declaration considering changes in the international situation, the content of which has not yet been published. There were also discussions on joint celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2025, referred to in the former USSR countries as the "victory over fascism."
During the press conference in Astana, Putin stated that Kazakhstan is a "Russian-speaking country." The dictator is partially correct because Russian is an official language there.
"High-level trolling"
However, Tokayev's later response confirmed that relations between the countries are not the best.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev began to speak Kazakh during a joint briefing, which included Putin, instead of Russian, as the dictator and his delegation expected.
During Tokayev's speech, Putin grabbed a headset to hear the translation of the conversation. The Russian delegation did the same in a hurry.
"High-level trolling" - commented former advisor to Zelensky, Anton Gerashchenko.
"This is what diplomatic humiliation of the Russian delegation in Kazakhstan under Putin's leadership looks like," commented the Crimean Wind channel.
Putin mocked the president of Kazakhstan twice
Putin—probably deliberately—twice mispronounced the name of Kazakhstan's president. The first incident occurred on June 17, 2022, when Tokayev declared that Kazakhstan would not recognize Putin's puppets in the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics.
Putin called the president of Kazakhstan Kamysham Ishemilevich, while his real name is Kassym-Jomart Kemelovich Tokayev.
Putin distorted the Kazakh president's name in the exact same way on November 9, 2023.
At the end of October 2024, the government of Kazakhstan announced that it firmly disagrees with the use of its territory by Russia to circumvent international sanctions.
Summit without Armenia again
The Armenian leader was absent from the alliance's summit for the second time, as the country has long announced its withdrawal from the CSTO. In February 2024, Armenia suspended its participation in the alliance, stopped co-financing the organization, and has not participated in any joint exercises since then.
The leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, commented on Armenia's absence at the summit, stating that it "characterizes the current geopolitical situation in the region and to some extent our organization."
