Another Neighbor Turns Back on Russia

Another ally appeared to turn its back on Moscow on Thursday when Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said his country would not help Russia circumvent Western sanctions imposed over Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

Relations between Kazakhstan and Russia, have deteriorated since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Kazakhstan, which shares a 7,500-kilometer border with Russia, is a former Soviet state in Central Asia and Moscow's nominal ally in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

"Kazakhstan has unambiguously stated that it will follow the sanctions regime," Tokayev said following talks during an official visit to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"We have contacts with the relevant organizations to comply with the sanctions regime, and I think there should not be any concerns on the German side about possible actions aimed at circumventing the sanctions regime," he said.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

Timothy Ash, an economist and associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at British think tank Chatham House, said the statement was significant and shows Moscow is losing influence.

"Wow, huge move. Just shows weakening grip across region of Russia because of Putin's idiotic invasion of Ukraine. He lost Armenia in recent weeks on Russia's inability to help in [Nagorno-Karabakh]," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Tokayev also renewed Kazakhstan's call for negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv to end the war.

"The time has come for rational, I would say, wise diplomacy," Tokayev said. "It is time to end mutual accusations and begin talking business in order to find the basis for peace talks that would be acceptable to both sides."

In July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is considered close to Putin, also seemingly turned his back on the Russian president when he dropped Ankara's objection to Sweden's NATO membership.

Tension has also mounted between Armenia and Russia, which have long been close allies. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this month that Putin failed to support his country amid clashes with neighboring Azerbaijan.

Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media organization RT, acknowledged on state TV earlier this month that Russia has no allies in the war launched by Putin.

Simonyan said Russia is waging the "most difficult…toughest and generally unprecedented war in our history."

"It is the most difficult and the toughest because it is the first war in our history in which we have no allies at all," Simonyan said.

She then said that actually Russia has "one ally in this war, Belarus."

"But it's hard to call it an ally, because it is us," said Simonyan.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.