The 2024 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit concluded today, on July 4, in the Kazakh capital city with the adoption of the Astana Declaration and the approving of a number of strategic documents covering energy, security, trade, finance, and information security.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ participation in this high-level gathering lent additional weight to it. The summit appears to have largely been an image event for Kazakhstan. It probably is therefore particularly pitiful for the host country’s representatives to see that some Western and Russian media outlets have been writing more about the problematic geopolitical atmosphere in which the summit took place than the event itself.
Deutsche Welle’s Anatoly Weiskopf, in a report piece entitled “Why the SCO summit in Astana has already become a triumph for Xi Jinping” and published on July 3, says: “Another summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization began in Astana. The main events will take place on July 4, and during its first day, the Chinese side dominated the information field”. He notes that President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev personally met Xi Jinping at the Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev Airport, while Russian President Vladimir Putin who had arrived shortly after the Chinese President was met at the plane’s ramp by the head of the Kazakh government, Olzhas Bektenov.
It is said that Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a State visit and to attend the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared in Astana just to take part in the SCO summit.
Here is what Anatoly Weiskopf further writes: “What is also interesting is that this time the Kazakh press pays almost no attention to the Russian President. He is clearly in the shadow of his Chinese counterpart. Just look at the reports of the leading media in Kazakhstan, which track almost every step of Xi Jinping and members of his team – and without a single critical remark”.
The Russian propaganda media did not remain in debt and responded peculiarly to views of the above kind on the situation in the triangle of Moscow – Astana – Beijing. New Izvestia’s Nikolai Vladimirov, in an analytical piece, entitled “Kazakhstan as a backyard: why the meeting between Putin and Tokayev did not attract attention” and published on July, 4 says: “On the eve of the main day of the SCO summit in Astana, Vladimir Putin met with the head of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. A minimum of information has emerged about their conversation. Meanwhile, the interdependence of the two States and the closeness of their leaders are undeniable”. This seems to be the answer to why “the Kazakh press pays almost no attention to the Russian president”.
Then Nikolai Vladimirov goes on to point out: “There is no doubt that Putin and Tokayev do not need to meet in person to monitor the development of relations between the two countries with all its difficult moments created mainly by the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. For this, there is a telephone, foreign ministers, advisers, ambassadors, etc. And judging by the current level of relationships, all these people work quite successfully”. According to him, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev “managed to emerge from the shadow (of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev) thanks to the support of Vladimir Putin, which the [current] Kazakh leader will always remember in the future and lead his country in the wake of Russian foreign policy”.
Thus, Nikolai Vladimirov seemingly takes pains to convince everyone that claims like Putin was “clearly in the shadow of his Chinese counterpart” in Astana are not true. But it still needs to be proven. Nikolai Vladimirov, having taken up the task, goes too far with his conclusions. Testimony of this is his claim that Kazakh President “[Kassym-Jomart] Tokayev is part of [Russian President] Putin’s inner circle”.
The meaning of ‘inner circle’ is a small group of people who lead a government or an organization or who are close to its leader. In nowadays Russia’s case, being part of Putin’s inner circle means being part of the Russian administrative and political vertical of power, isn’t it?! Does this suggest that the Russian journalist means that Moscow already considers Kazakhstan as part of Russia?