Vladimir Putin’s lightning deployment of troops took less than a day to help turn the tide against anti-government protesters in Kazakhstan. Ahead of high-stakes security talks with the U.S., it also sent a reminder of just how determined the Russian president is to defend what he sees as his own neighborhood.
"If it made an impression, that’s all for the better,” said Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy speaker of the upper house of Russia’s parliament.
The dramatic operation — the first of its kind by the Russian-led military bloc Moscow sees as its version of NATO — came just days before the U.S. and its allies sit down with Kremlin negotiators to try to address Moscow’s concerns about the Western alliance’s expansion toward its borders and head off an invasion of Ukraine that the West fears the Kremlin is planning.
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