LOL! How do you expect to keep good relations with both Russia and West when Russia invade it when possible losing influence and corruption that is holding down Ukraine? Even Kazakhstan you mentioned is questioning their relationship with Russia.
There is little doubt that Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will extend his rule over Kazakhstan by seven years in presidential elections on Sunday. What is less clear is how the former diplomat can reduce his resource-rich country's dependence on Russia without alienating it.
www.reuters.com
Analysis: Shocked by Ukraine war, Russian neighbour Kazakhstan looks west
ALMATY, Nov 17 (Reuters) - There is little doubt that Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will extend his rule over Kazakhstan by seven years in presidential elections on Sunday. What is less clear is how the former diplomat can reduce his resource-rich country's dependence on Russia without alienating it.
Tokayev – who opinion polls predict will comfortably win
reelection at the weekend - has pushed back publicly against territorial claims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in
Ukraine, souring relations between the former Soviet republic and Moscow.
Russia and Kazakhstan share the world's longest continuous land border, prompting concern among some Kazakhs about the security of a country with the second-biggest ethnic Russian population among ex-Soviet republics after Ukraine.
At a forum in St. Petersburg in June where Tokayev shared the stage with Putin, he said his government did not recognize Russian-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine and that Kazakhstan upheld the inviolability of internationally recognised borders.
His blunt remarks took observers by surprise and prompted angry threats from some pro-war commentators in Russian media.
And last month, when Tokayev hosted a summit of Central Asia presidents, he held face-to-face meetings with other leaders but no bilateral talks with Putin, amid a cooling in relations.
The 69-year-old Tokayev took office in 2019 after Kazakhstan's previous president resigned amid protests. After surviving unrest in January triggered by fuel price rises, Tokayev unveiled reforms - including constitutional amendments and a hike in the minimum wage - and called snap elections.