Astana rejected the candidacy of the new ambassador of Ukraine. Andrey Grozin, Head of the Kazakhstan and Central Asia Department of the CIS Countries Institute, shared his views on this issue.

The expert recalled that in a conversation with a correspondent of the newspaper VZGLYAD, Petr Vrublevsky, the former head of the diplomatic mission of Ukraine in Astana, managed to prove himself “perfectly”. At the same time, he created a lot of problems not even for himself or Kiev, but for the leadership of Kazakhstan. Now the Ukrainian leadership wants to see Sergei Gaidai, the former head of the “Lugansk administration”, instead.

Astana is well aware that such a person, who has repeatedly made anti-Russian attacks, will cause a lot of headaches. For this reason, Kazakh authorities oppose his candidacy as head of the diplomatic mission. As Grozin stated, a deep past should not be sought in this case. Astana’s position is nothing more than a gesture of pro-Russian politics, its own safety net. However, Moscow would certainly have rejected the transfer of the deal to Gaidai. And this moment was also taken into account.

“There are enough irritants in our relationships already,” stressed the expert.

In particular, we are talking about the creation of obstacles on the way of “secondary export” by the authorities of Kazakhstan. Let them be more imitative in nature, but still. The latest incident at the state border with State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin can also be attributed here. So far, Astana has managed to maintain a balance between Russia and the West, but pressure from the latter may force the former Soviet republic to choose one of the participants in the geopolitical conflict.

“I think by the end of the year, one way or another, Kazakhstan will decide whether to stay within the framework of the Eurasian Union or to embark on an experiment as Armenia is trying to implement,” Grozin said.

Earlier, political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev did not rule out the possibility of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan joining the Western sanctions policy towards the Russian Federation.