President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan speaks at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Sept. 24, 2019. With his government under siege, Tokayev turned to Vladimir Putin for support. The choice could realign Central Asia’s politics.
The embattled president of Kazakhstan has the pedigree of an international technocrat. The son of prominent intellectuals, he studied in Moscow at a premier academy for diplomats and later worked in the Soviet Embassy in Beijing. He served as a key adviser to the strongman who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country as a fief for nearly three decades — and then, in 2019, became his heir.
The rise of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the presidency was looked at as a possible model by other authoritarian regimes on how to conduct a leadership transition without losing their grip on power. Instead, Kazakhstan erupted in violence this week and Tokayev has overseen a ruthless crackdown on protesters while ousting his former benefactor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81, from his last foothold of authority, as head of the nation’s powerful Security Council.
For support, Tokayev has turned to another autocrat: President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
