Zmiany priorytetów w polityce zagranicznej Kazachstanu i ich praktyczna realizacja (2014-2024)

CHANGES IN KAZAKHSTAN’S FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES AND THEIR PRACTICAL IMPLE­MENTATION (2014-2024) During the first years of independence, Kazakhstan pursued a foreign policy aimed at maintaining close relations with Russia. It was a participant in all in­tegration programmes in the post-Soviet space involving Russia. The deteri­oration of Russia’s relations with the West as a result of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 prompted the Kazakh authorities to change their foreign policy priorities. Kazakhstan did not recognise the incorporation of Crimea by Russia, nor the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics. Following the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022, disapproval of Russian policy was repeatedly demonstrated from Astana. The changes in the perception of the in­ternational situation around Kazakhstan were reflected in the 2014 and 2020 presidential decrees on the foreign policy concept for the coming years. The 2014 decree was signed by the country’s first president, who had held the high­est office since 1992, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The second document was signed by his successor Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, in office since 2019. Most experts at­tribute the authorship of both decrees to Tokayev. The practice of implementing the content of the decrees by the two presidents differed.