Kazakhstan seeks to chart own course

It may be too soon to speak of a divorce between Russia and Kazakhstan. Yet the former’s invasion of Ukraine is sending shivers through Central Asia

Alliances are being redrawn in Central Asia, with Russia, China, Turkey and the West pulling the region’s countries in different directions, and experts say energy trade is the key indicator to watch. Kazakhstan, which contains the region’s largest proven oil reserves and shares the world’s second-largest land border with Russia, is sharply in focus for defying its former imperial master. Kazakhstan, home to 19mn people, is the largest Central Asian state. It is also the only country in the region to border Russia, and has been on a geopolitical rollercoaster this year. In January, Russian forces helped quell what authorities described as a foreign-backed coup, leading many analysts to specu