The Russian regime's Foreign Minister, Trump pal and professional liar Sergei Lavrov, issued a threat yesterday when speaking to his counterparts at an Arab League conference in Cairo, saying: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.” It's the clearest sign that the Kremlin intends to force regime change in Kyiv, and either install a puppet government or annex the entirety of Ukraine, as they did with Crimea. Lavrov's threat came just days after the Kremlin agreed to let Ukraine resume shipments of grain and corn from its blockaded Black Sea ports, and only 24 hours after Russian cruise missiles attacked the port facilities at Odesa from which the grain would be shipped.
A second threat to another Russian neighbor is emerging with the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, which used to be part of Putin's beloved Soviet Union. Kazakhstan shares a 4,700 mile border with Russia, and took note of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While it abstained from condemning Russia in the UN, it has said it will cooperate with international sanctions against the Kremlin. They also promised to boost oil supplies to Europe and have increased their defense spending. Kazakhstan traditionally had a close relationship with Russia, but is reportedly seeking support from the West on security and economic matters:
"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a fellow former Soviet republic that shares a lot of similarities with Kazakhstan—is changing that relationship. Now Kazakhstan is rethinking Russia’s privileged position in its foreign policy and reaching out to countries like the U.S., Turkey and China, according to interviews with current and former Kazakh officials, lawmakers and analysts.
A telling moment came in June, when Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev flew to Russia for Mr. Putin’s flagship economic forum in St. Petersburg. Sharing the stage with the Russian president, Mr. Tokayev said Kazakhstan wouldn’t recognize the two Moscow-backed separatist states in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that Mr. Putin says he is liberating. When asked by the panel’s moderator whether the West was pressuring his country, Mr. Tokayev deflected the question." (our emphasis)
After Kazakhstan showed a warming toward the West and the U.S., the Kremlin reacted through its network of operatives:
"The U.S. outreach to Kazakhstan raised eyebrows in Moscow, said Andrei Grozin, a Central Asia researcher at the state-funded Russian Academy of Sciences. While the Kremlin isn’t troubled yet, he said, if Kazakhstan’s government were to turn hostile, that would be even more threatening to Russia than a hostile Ukraine, given the countries’ lengthy shared border.
'But I think it won’t come to this,' Mr. Grozin said. 'Kazakhstan’s elite has a greater instinct for self-preservation than their colleagues in Ukraine.'" (our emphasis)
Take them at their word, and prepare accordingly.
