“Many inside and outside Kazakhstan will see the placement of foreign troops in the country as sacrificing its sovereignty and an example of the Toqaev government’s weakness, which carries with it ramifications for the future when Russia will remind Toqaev of the service it has rendered and told what loyalty the Kremlin expects,” RFE/RL’s Bruce Pannier writes.
 
“Many of the tools that the United States would normally use in this kind of situation (i.e., sanctions) are poorly suited for the Kazakh case; major American energy companies are deeply integrated into the Kazakh economy, and sanctions on these industries would risk production shortfalls that could impact America’s European allies,” the Atlantic Council’s Emma Ashford writes.