RUSSIA’S DUMA WARNS KAZAKHSTAN.

The Russian Duma adopted November 17, a statement denouncing "the violation of the rights and freedoms of ethnic Russians and Russian citizens in Kazakhstan." The statement accused Kazakhstan of discriminating against the Russian language, closing Russian schools, attacking Orthodox churches, dismissing Russians from high-level posts in the civil service, and persecuting Russian Cossacks through the arrest of several Cossack activists. The Duma warned that the position of Kazakhstan’s leadership on these issues will decisively affect Russia’s economic, political, and "other" relations with Kazakhstan. Meanwhile on the Russia-Kazakhstan border, Russian Ural Cossacks warned that they would cut off roads and impose an economic blockade of Kazakhstan if it did not release Cossack ataman Nikolai Gunkin, awaiting trial in Almaty for irredentist activities. (22)

The Duma’s statement follows accusations by Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier this month that Kazakhstan discriminates against its Russians. President Nursultan Nazarbayev and other senior Kazakhstan officials (including ethnic Russians) refuted the accusations on the eve of Nazarbayev’s meeting with Boris Yeltsin in Moscow last week. The charges typify Russian nationalist reactions to the newly independent states’ de-russification of public life, the school system, and the civil service–spheres heavily dominated by the Russian languages and Russian settlers to the detriment of the local peoples and their language during the Soviet era.

1. Reuter, Interfax, November 20

2. Reuter, November 20

3. Interfax, November 16

4. Reuter, November 18

5. Interfax, November 17

6. Nezavisimaya gazeta, November 15

7. Interfax, November 17

8. Interfax, November 18

9. Interfax, November 18

10. Itar-Tass, Interfax, Russian TV, November 17-19

11. Interfax, November 17

12. Interfax-Eurasia, 19 November 1995

13. BNS, November 15 through 18

14. Interfax-Ukraine, Reuter, November 19

15. UNIAN, November 15

16. Reuter, November 19

17. Interfax-Ukraine, November 18

18. Noyan Tapan and Interfax, November 16 and 17

19. Petroleum Information Agency and Interfax-Ukraine, November 17

20. Interfax and Russian TV, November 17

21. Itar-Tass and Interfax, November 17

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