Kazakhstan

[Azor]

See here: http://golosislama.com/news.php?id=29722



Last year, I pointed out that Putin was more likely to invade Belarus or Kazakhstan, rather than any of the Baltic states, which are NATO members. My argument was that northern Kazakhstan would offer Russia millions of ethnic Russians as well as natural resources, particularly lower cost oil and gas (currently Kazakhstan occupies the production ranking Libya did prior to its civil war), whereas the Baltics offer possible Armageddon and little else.

Now that protests are breaking out in Kazakhstan, Kazakhs are worried that the Kremlin will take advantage of the situation. Already, Astana has clamped down harder on Russian language use and Russian NGOs than the post-Yanukovych government in Kiev ever intended to...