| Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has pursued an interventionist stance toward protecting ethnic Russians living in the border regions of Abkhazia, Crimea, and the Donetsk region of Ukraine. When considering regions potentially vulnerable to future Russian intervention, the presence of nearly four million ethnic Russians in the border oblasts of northern Kazakhstan constitutes a conceivable crisis for Kazakhstan and the international community. In order to assess the potential of Russian intervention or annexation of Kazakhstan's northern oblasts, this thesis will study the recent history and current state of political and ethnic considerations in northern Kazakhstan, the unclear succession process of longtime President Nazarbayev, and the emergence of China as a regional power rival in Central Asia. |
