Russia has become the target of a new insult for Kazakhstan, but this time an unusual one: a chocolate advertisement.

An ad for a Kazakh chocolate brand shows a tired Russian man crossing the border on foot through the mountains, only to be met at Russia’s southern border by a Kazakh on horseback wearing one of the country’s traditional costumes.

The Kazakh hands the Russian a chocolate bar, and a short dialogue begins between them:

“- What it is?

“This is freedom.”

Then the announcer of the ad adds a simple message: “Kazakhstan. Feel the taste of freedom.”

It will be recalled that shortly after President Vladimir Putin announced a decree on partial mobilization in Russia on September 21, tens of thousands of Russians stormed the country’s southern border, trying to cross Kazakhstan and Georgia in conditions of rapid exhaustion of tickets for international flights.

Just a week after the decision announced by Putin, the government in Astana took steps to ease the red tape faced by Russians arriving in Kazakhstan so they can have easier access to certain government and banking services.

But despite the ad’s “taste of freedom,” Kazakh authorities announced on September 25 that they had arrested three Russians who tried to cross the border illegally to bypass customs, saying “the criminals will be handed over to the Russian side.”

Strong cooling of relations between Russia and Kazakhstan

The regime of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has gradually but most publicly distanced itself from its northern neighbor since Vladimir Putin launched a “special military operation” on February 24, taking a series of decisions that have dismayed Moscow.

The first and perhaps the loudest of them was voiced by Tokayev himself in mid-June in an interview with the Moscow TV channel “Russia-24”, where he stated that the government in Astana will respect the sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, as they do not want to involve measures against Kazakhstan.

“Sanctions are sanctions, we should not violate them,” he told Russian journalists.

Later, in August, the Minister of Education of Kazakhstan announced that the government was canceling compulsory study of the Russian language in the first grade. Although he specified that the measure would also apply to the English language, the measure did not go unnoticed in Moscow because of its strong symbolism.

Ivan Us, a prominent Ukrainian foreign policy expert, explained in a major interview with HotNews.ro in April that the Russian language is a pretext used by Moscow to invade its neighbors.

Kazakhstan wants to export energy to Europe

Kazakhstan’s energy minister also said on October 21 that his country does not want to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles amid talks to create a single oil and gas market for the Eurasian Economic Union, a trading bloc that includes five former Soviet states.

His statement came after Russia proposed using the ruble as a payment currency.

Later, on November 7, Kazakhstan said it wanted to increase oil exports bypassing Russia through ports on the Caspian Sea.

President Tokayev, who personally asked the government to develop plans in this regard, again justified the measure by saying that Kazakhstan does not want his country to become a victim of Western sanctions if it does not comply with those imposed on the Russian economy.

But political scientists and energy experts say that Kazakhstan wants to become a major player in the European market, as the EU has decided to eliminate its dependence on energy imports from Russia.

On Sunday, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won a second term as president, winning 81.3% of the vote in the early elections he called, some of which were predictable.

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