Kazakhstani Chessboard — Part 1 — The setting

At the beginning of January, a stunning series of events occurred in Kazakhstan, a major Central Asian country. In comparison to many other states with a similar history of ties to the USSR, this post-Soviet republic was largely a success story. Another significant difference is that Kazakhstan, with the support of Russia and the CSTO, prevented a color revolution from taking place just last week. But was there a concerted effort on the part of Western powers to stage a putsch against Kazakhstan's government? Or was the uprising we witnessed merely a manifestation of power struggles within the Kazakh establishment?

Before we get to those questions, The Barricade's Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat discuss the general political realities in Kazakhstan today, as well as the fundamental premises for such violent events to have occurred.