The citizens of Kazakhstan were growing fear of a Russian invasion

Over the past six months, the number of Kazakh citizens who fear a Russian invasion has doubled, according to a survey by NGOs MediaNet and PaperLab. Reuters writes about it.

The survey was conducted among 1,100 respondents from 3 to 12 May. The survey showed that almost 60% of society is neutral towards the war, 12.8% support Russia and 21.1% support Ukraine. Approximately the same data of the organization was recorded in December last year.

At the same time, the number of people fearing a Russian invasion among the population of Kazakhstan has increased significantly: from 8.3% in the previous survey to 15%. In addition, almost a third of respondents said that their attitude towards Russia had deteriorated due to the war, 4.7% had improved their attitude towards the Russian Federation, and more than half had not changed.

The population of Kazakhstan is about 20 million people, of which about 3 million are ethnic Russians.

Kazakhstan took a neutral stance towards the Russo-Ukrainian war. Astana refused to condemn the Russian aggression and largely abstained from voting on the relevant paragraphs of the UN resolution. At the same time, the Kazakh authorities declared that the republic respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity. And the country’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, speaking at the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg together with the head of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, called the DPRK and the LPR “quasi-state territories”. He also stated that Kazakhstan does not recognize their independence.

However, Russia sees Kazakhstan as a “friendly” country. Tokayev became one of the heads of state invited by Putin to the Victory Parade on May 9. Moreover, by the end of 2022, Kazakhstan has increased its supplies of goods to Russia by 25% and has become one of the main parallel import hubs, the total volume of which the Russian government estimated at US$20 billion.