The Kremlin reports meeting between Vladimir Putin and ex-president Nazarbayev
On May 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Kazakhstan’s Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as reported by Kremlin.ru.
The website provided no details about the meeting apart from a few photographs.
The last meeting of Nazarbayev and Putin took place at the Russian president’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence in the Moscow region on Dec. 13, 2024. At the time, MP Samat Nurtaza expressed his concerns, commenting that such meetings make him «anxious.»
That meeting was also addressed by MPs Ermurat Bapi and Aidos Sarym, who stated it had nothing to do with a possible repetition of the January 2022 events.
Among other experts who commented on the matter were political scientist Yerbol Yedilov and journalist Asset Matayev, who noted that the Kremlin’s report on the meeting was quite short and wondered whether that visit was some sort of political signal or just an act of courtesy.
Nazarbayev and Putin held another meeting in December 2023. At the time, the Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that the meeting was private. At the time, Yerlan Koshanov, chairman of the Mazhilis, the lower house of Kazakhstani parliament, said that there was no dual power in the country and that Nazarbayev was simply «exercising his personal rights.»
A meeting between Nazarbayev and Putin in December 2021, on the sidelines of the Informal CIS summit in Saint Petersburg, happened shortly before the January 2022 unrest — a series of mass protests and civil disturbances that lasted from Jan. 2 to Jan. 10, 2022. The formal reason behind the events was a two-fold price increase for liquefied gas in Zhanaozen. Peaceful protests quickly turned into violent anti-government riots engulfing the entirety of Kazakhstan, prompting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to declare a state of emergency. On Jan. 5, he accepted the cabinet’s resignation and replaced Nazarbayev as head of the Security Council. Under Tokayev’s request, the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s troops arrived in Kazakhstan to stabilize the situation. Authorities regained control of the country by Jan. 11.
Nazarbayev served as Kazakhstan’s president for almost 30 years. He voluntarily resigned in March 2019. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, then chairman of the Senate, assumed the presidency. Since then, the parliament has adopted a number of laws revoking the special titles and privileges that Nazarbayev and his family previously enjoyed.
