Recently, nine pro-Western opposition parties in Georgia signed an agreement to coordinate their efforts against the ruling party, Georgian Dream. For a country whose opposition has long been divided and distrustful, this is a significant development. The question now is whether the West will act in time to help them keep their country in the democratic world.
Tokayev received congratulations on his election victory from presidents Xi, Putin, Erdogan, and Lukashenko. However, the phone in the Akorda, Kazakhstan’s presidential palace, did not ring with congratulatory calls from Berlin, Paris, London, or Washington.
Valdimir Putin’s equivalent to Nato — the Collective Security Treaty Organization of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Belarus — is convening in Moscow next week to give cover that Russia is not alone in its war against Ukraine.
Details of how ‘Bloody January’ unfolded in Kazakhstan indicate Russia planned its intervention well in advance — and that puts Almaty in Putin’s debt.