Will Russia Invade Kazakhstan?

There are several reasons that they might, and it’s making Kazakhstan nervous.

Niall Leah
8 min readAug 29, 2022

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Lubos Chlubny (Shutterstock Standard usage rights)

Kazakhstan could be in danger. This is nothing new, fear of a Russian attempt to recapture its territory has been a tangible fear for the country since it became independent in 1992.

Why would they be a target?

Sharing the second largest land border in the world with Russia, Kazakhstan is terrifyingly close to conflict occurring right next door. There are several reasons Russia could invade them.

Reason one — To Restore the Russian world.

Kazakhstan’s territory falls into what was formally the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan is a land rich in resources such as uranium and oil, making the land extremely valuable, but it’s not just material resources that Russia wants.

For Putin and many Russian elites, this is an ideological matter.

Putin and those who share his ideology don’t see the world the same way as the Western world does. The doctrine they hold is called Neo-Eurasanism. It envisions Russia not just as a country or state but as the center of its civilization. It sees Russia as the center of a continental society directly opposed to the US and Europe’s ocean states. They believe the world order should be multipolar with several world powers instead of a dominant western one.

This ideology was outlined in the book Foundation of geopolitics written by Aleksandr Dugin. It cannot be underestimated just how much influence these ideas have on the elites in Moscow. The book itself is required reading in the Moscow military academy.

Dugin has been called Putin’s Brain or a modern-day Rasputin because of his significant influence. It’s his daughter that was recently killed by a car bomb in Moscow. Dugin himself is believed to have been the intended target.

It’s thought by many that the same ideas promoted in the book provided a strong motivation to maintain control over Ukraine to the extent of starting a war.

Those to subscribe to this nationalist ideology are motivated to reclaim the territory of the former Russian empire. Putin and other elites contend…

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Niall Leah

An ex-pat from the UK living in Chengdu, China. I satisfy my endless curiosity about the incredible journey of humanity by reading, traveling, and writing.