Nina Khrushcheva: Putin Could Be Kingmaker in Kazakhstan Power Struggle as Russia Helps Quell Protests

Kazakhstan's authoritarian President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has described last week's protests as an attempted coup and defended his call for Russian-led troops into the country to put down the unrest. Demonstrations were triggered by a rise in fuel prices and widened to broader anti-government protests. Over 160 people were killed in the violence, including a 4-year-old girl, and thousands were detained. The Russian troops will probably get out, but Tokayev, if he keeps power ... probably will be somehow in debt of Putin, and Putin may have [the] position to decide, or help decide, certain moves in Kazakhstan," says Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School.