And suddenly, I find something I can sink my teeth into: Russo-Kazakh Relations after the Fall of the Soviet Union

I always love reading up on Russia in the news. I haven't been doing it as often as I would like; but every time I do, there is usually SOMETHING that catches my attention and prompts a bout of pondering the historical and political context of an action.

Last time this happened to me, I read a blurb about Russia pressuring Ukraine to unpeg their currency from the dollar; that spawned a five page paper sourced with nothing but news articles. And today is no different: today, I'm going to take a little walk through pondering Russia's relations with Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Please forgive me if I'm a little overenthusiastic; this is, after all, one of my favorite topics, as I always amazed  at how much one event-- or, to be more accurate, chain of events-- could so drastically change the world. It's one of those interesting little moments where history and politics are interconnected, and therefore, vastly more interesting to Russia nerds such as myself.

Today's Story: 

"Russia facing no access to space for first time since Cold War"

This is a pretty big headline-- Russia with no access to space? Russia's been considered the world leader in space exploration (I read it on NPR, so it obviously has to be true), yet recently they've been running into some problems. Most of them are manageable, if not highly unfortunate-- for example, in that NPR article I mentioned, it mentions that Russia suffered "at least six mission failures, including the loss of a $163 million Mars probe". (In this economy, and with these oil prices, that is a whole lot of cash.) This, however, is nothing compared to the problem facing Russia at the moment: Loss of access to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, also known as "the main connection between earth and the International Space Station". If one were to, let's say, be interested in space exploration, it might be important to have access to the International Space Station.

So, how exactly did this happen? It may boggle the mind, but Russia's main point of access to space is not, in fact, located in Russia, but in Kazakhstan. And while the space station was "inherited" by Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, because the property lies in Kazakhstan, Russia in fact only rents the space station. (Personally, that doesn't seem like much of an inheritance to me at all.) One rent dispute later, it's suddenly appearing that Kazakhstan might boot Russia out of the base entirely-- and what then?

I have absolutely no idea. Unfortunately, I'm not a space program enthusiast-- I mean, I think space programs are a great thing to have, and are really cool-- but I have no solid recommendations on what to do when one country cuts you off from your only access point to space, other than, well, building your own base in your own country so you don't have to argue about rent.

This story IS interesting, however, in the fact that it is yet another time when Russia and Kazakhstan have butted heads over an issue of access to a resource-- in this case, access to space-- based on the geopolitical settling of the fall of the Soviet Union. Put simply: Russia and Kazakhstan have been pushing each other back and forth to decide who's the big kid on the block since the adults (i.e. the general overarching government of the Soviet Union) have gone away.

Ones to keep your eye on: The foresty green one in the middle (Kazakhstan, in this case also known as "not India); the little brown dot above the orange country on the far left (also known as Belarus-- they'll be important later), and the overwhelmingly obvious yellow mass that takes over almost a third of the map (you guessed it-- good old Russia).

Now, a glance at the map shows that light foresty green Kazakhstan is nowhere near as massive as flamboyantly bright Russia; however, Kazakhstan IS the largest of the "Stans" (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) and thus seeks to counter Russia's geopolitical sway in the region. Additionally, Russia and Kazakhstan share the economic model of being petrostates, depending on oil and gas to keep their economies and national governments running. This is of major concern, as they are also competitors for access to the oil fields under the Caspian Sea. 

Economically, these two countries are competitors; however, they are also economic partners. For example, in May 2007, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan signed a tripartite agreement on importing and transporting oil and gas, and constructing a pipeline through the Caspian Sea. True, this deal didn't end up panning out for Russia as well as they had hoped (struggling to keep up the deal without helping develop the infrastructure of Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan; Kazakhstan wanting ever more concessions), but Kazakhstan also participates in a Customs Union with Russia and Belarus. (Told you that little brown speck would be important.) 

However, it can't be overlooked that Kazakhstan joined this Customs Union after weakening and, in essence, defying the Russian government on the subject of Belarus. In the dead of winter in 2010, Russia was threatening to cut off Belarus's energy supply due to arguments over energy prices and debt (par for the course for Russia, to be perfectly honest). Everything was going predictably enough when suddenly Kazakhstan stepped in and offered to sell energy to Belarus in Russia's stead. This would be a huge blow to Russia-- two of Russia's most loyal allies making a deal behind its back?

Suffice it to say, it's rather interesting to note that Kazakhstan stepped into the fray January 19, 2010, just 18 days after the three countries entered into a Customs Union.

So this space shuttle tiff is only another example of Russia and Kazakhstan quarreling over turf. It's not even unique in that Russia is coveting an asset in another country-- look at Russia and the fight for the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine. Just another example of how in the ex-Soviet Union, events don't tend to stand on their own.