# Kazakhstan > [!info] Gateway page > One of the fifteen former Soviet republics compared at [[Post-Soviet States]]. **Kazakhstan** is the region's most active hedger — and the clearest demonstration that "in Putin's orbit" and "aligned with the West" are not opposites a government has to choose between. In a single twelve-month span it signed an "alliance" declaration with Moscow, gave a U.S.-backed investor a controlling stake in a strategic tungsten deposit, announced it would join the [[Abraham Accords]], and split its first two nuclear power plants between [[Rosatom]] and China. | Item | Detail | |---|---| | Independence | 16 December 1991 — the last Soviet republic to declare | | Head of state | President [[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev]], successor to [[Nursultan Nazarbayev]] | | Head of government | Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, reconfirmed 31 August 2026; Erlan Karin appointed to the restored vice presidency the same day | | Russia-led blocs | [[Collective Security Treaty Organization]] · [[Eurasian Economic Union]] · CIS | | Other blocs | [[Shanghai Cooperation Organisation]] | | Russian presence | [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]], leased to Russia through 2050 | | Population | About 20.5 million (January 2026) | ## Moscow's claims on it - **The 2022 rescue.** In January 2022 the CSTO sent more than 2,000 troops at Tokayev's request during mass unrest; they were gone by 19 January. It remains the alliance's only consequential deployment — and it was in defence of a government, not a border. - **The alliance declaration.** Tokayev and Putin signed a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Alliance" declaration in Moscow on 12 November 2025. - **Nuclear power.** Rosatom was selected in June 2025 to lead the first plant; the contract for two VVER-1200 reactors near Ulken on Lake Balkhash, roughly $16.4 billion mostly financed by Russian state loans, was signed on 3 September 2026. China's CNNC leads the second plant. - **The pipeline.** About 80% of Kazakh oil exports reach the sea through the CPC pipeline to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk — which puts Kazakhstan's income inside the Russia–Ukraine war's strike zone. Astana publicly told Kyiv to stop after a drone attack on the CPC terminal in late November 2025; after strikes on tankers there in July 2026, Kazakhstan cut production. ## Washington's claims on it At the White House C5+1 summit on 6 November 2025 Kazakhstan signed the [[Kazakhstan Tungsten Deal]] — a $1.1 billion joint venture with the state miner Tau-Ken Samruk in which a U.S. investor group (announced as Cove Kaz Capital) holds 70%, backed by up to $900 million in U.S. Export-Import Bank financing — alongside more than 30 agreements with U.S. firms. The deal page tracks the stake that a firm tied to [[Donald Trump Jr.]] and [[Eric Trump]] took in a related entity. The same day it announced accession to the Abraham Accords; as of late September 2026 no formal signing had taken place. See [[Critical Minerals]]. ## At home A new constitution approved by referendum on 15 March 2026 (about 87% yes by the election commission's count; sources differ) replaced the two-chamber parliament with a single 145-seat Kurultai and restored the vice presidency; it took effect 1 July 2026. In the 23 August 2026 Kurultai election the ruling Ädilet party took 110 of 145 seats. The multi-vector foreign policy comes with a consolidating domestic one. ## See Also - [[Post-Soviet States]] — all fifteen former republics compared - [[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev]] - [[Kazakhstan Tungsten Deal]] - [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]] - [[Rosatom]]