ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of Russian-Kazakh relations during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Kazakhstan, like Ukraine, is on the verge of an inter-national crisis between Russians and Kazakhs that has the potential to become an inter-state conflict between Russia and Kazakhstan. In addition to emigrating from Kazakhstan, Russians have increasingly become more concentrated in Kazakhstan's northern oblasts. This geographic segregation is occurring as a result of Russian migration from southern oblasts with Kazakh majorities to northern oblasts with Russian majorities or pluralities. The geographic concentration of Russians in the north and the demographic kazakhization of that region is a potentially explosive combination. Dual citizenship is presently the most explosive inter-national and inter-state issue facing Kazakhstan. Russians in Kazakhstan favor dual citizenship, arguing that it would provide security against what they view as a troubling Kazakh-centric government in Almaty.
