In 2008, the Soviets--uh, the
Russians--invaded Georgia.
In March of 2014 they invaded Crimea--and swallowed it, whole.
Currently they are invading eastern Ukraine; perhaps in order to build a land bridge to Crimea.
Obviously, Vladimir Putin wishes to re-establish as much of the old Russian empire as possible.
Is it possible that Kazakhstan is next on his hit list?
From
The Moscow Times: President Vladimir Putin has said Kazakhstan's history of independent statehood is scant and its people's desire for closer ties with Russia is profound — a rhetoric reminiscent of Moscow's stance on Ukraine — and inhabitants of Kazakhstan are worried.
Kazakhs have taken to social networks to call for supporters to "send a history textbook to Putin" in response to the Russian leader's remarks last week that the Central Asian nation had never held any independence worth speaking of until very recently.
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has "created a state on a territory that never had a state," Putin told a pro-Kremlin youth camp at Lake Seliger near Moscow. "Kazakhs never had any statehood, he has created it."
One history chapter of which Kazakhs may like to remind Putin is the independent Kazakh Khanate state, which lasted from the 15th to the 19th century before it was weakened by invasions, taken over by the Russian Empire, and later became part of the Soviet Union.
Putin's remarks were hardly the first time Moscow has suggested that Kazakhstan might need a share of help from its former Soviet-era boss.
Russian nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has stayed attuned to the Kremlin's views during his decades in parliament while adding a flamboyant spin to Putin's relative reserve, said last week that he would like to "sort things out with Ukraine" first, but that Kazakhstan also deserves a closer look.
Here is the link to the entire article:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/kazakhs-worried-after-putin-questions-history-of-country-s-independence/506178.html
