No country for Putin, except Central Asia 

Today Russia’s president Putin arrived in Bishkek, making his first foreign trip this year.  

After holding talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov today, Putin will take part in a summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) tomorrow. 

The CIS has been seen from the outset as an empty shell created to keep up appearances – that the Soviet Union is not completely dead, and Russia is still “in control” of much of the former superpower’s territory (minus the Baltic states and Georgia, which never joined the grouping). 

The CIS could become a useful platform for solving many post-Soviet economic issues between its members. However, the decades of its existence have proven it to be a pretty much useless organisation.  

The summit in Bishkek, the Kremlin says, will define the organisation’s “prospects and areas of future development” and the leaders will also exchange opinions on “topical international and regional subjects”. 

We have heard that many times before. 

It seems the CIS’s only function now is to serve as a formal backdrop for ceremonial gatherings of several former Soviet nations’ leaders around Putin – much like boyars around a tzar. 

Not welcome in most parts of the world, today Putin needs a show of ‘international’ honour as never before. 

On his birthday, on 7 October, Putin invited the Kazakh and Uzbek leaders to Moscow to officially launch Russian natural gas supplies to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan.  

Perhaps it was the only birthday treat he could think of, or afford, — one that would satisfy his known yearning for an image as a leader of a powerful nation with enormous energy resources. 

The Central Asian leaders have not openly backed Russia’s war on Ukraine. Kazakh President Tokayev has gone as far as publicly stating, in Putin’s presence, that Kazakhstan won’t recognize the Kremlin-backed separatists in Ukraine. 

However, the historical, political, geographical, economic, and cultural ties and interdependencies between Central Asia and Russia will never go away.  

So, Central Asia seems to be doomed to ‘deal’ with Russia, no matter what. 

The Central Asian and other CIS leaders know that the Putin they are going to face tomorrow is a lame leader — bogged down in a bloody war (which he’s started against another former Soviet republic); under an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Ukraine; and one who recently suffered a failed mutiny at home. 

What’s more, the summit comes just weeks after Azerbaijan, in a military operation, regained control over the Armenian-backed separatist Karabakh region. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has slammed Russia for failing to support it. He will be missing at tomorrow’s summit.  

So, it will be yet another empty ceremonial gathering. The mood, even if they manage fake smiles, is likely to be rather gloomy. 

• 29
• 30