As is usually the case, Putin has anticipated the U.S. and European’s next move and has effectively countered it. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:
This week’s events in Kazakhstan are not surprising.
Less than one week before a major summit between the United states NATO and Russia over the security architecture of Eastern Europe, we’re treated to another failed color revolution in the most strategically important place along Russia’s southern border.
There was looting, horrific violence and former government buildings, the ultimate symbols of power, set on fire.
What may have been surprising was how quickly Russia and Kazakh’s President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev invoked the CSTO to come in and stop the nonsense. But, if it didn’t happen this way the consequences for Russia and the rest of Asia would have been catastrophic.
Kazakhstan is simply too big and too important for Russia to even consider allowing to fall back into the hands of someone like Nursultan Nasarbaev, a true post-Soviet meglomaniac, Russophobe and self-interested jackass whose double dealings with the West are just shy of those by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
This article by Fyodor Lukyanov, brings up a lot of good points about what this intervention means for the future and I highly recommend it. But what’s most important now is that this was a stiff message to Washington, London and Brussels.
