A demonstration that Russia is not alone is vital for Putin to ask more of the oligarchs and Russia's population in the days ahead. Those with VPNs and who are able to get international press recognise that Russia is becoming a pariah on the world stage. This is important for a population that is now starting to feel the effects of unprecedented sanctions. Now, on the 67th anniversary of the founding of the Warsaw Pact and the 30th anniversary of the founding of the CSTO, the latter is convening in Moscow to give cover that Russia is not alone in its war against Ukraine. Rather than standing with the Kazakh people and their desire for meaningful change, Tokayev played the role of former Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushev and Leonid Brezhnev, suggesting Moscow has a larger role in determining Kazakhstan's future than do its citizens. On 7 January, Tokayev publicly announced a 'shoot-to-kill without warning' order, leading to the deaths of at least 232 citizens. Unlike in Budapest and Prague, where Russian troops arrived uninvited and replaced the leadership, Tokayev, earlier this year, invited CSTO troops to quell protests speaking out against corruption and an increase in the price of liquified petroleum gas. Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was the enabler of Putin's shadow over Kazakhstan. The leaders of the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan are meeting - while having ongoing hostilities along the border in the Pamir mountains. The CSTO already has some family troubles. The organisation ignored pleas by Armenia's prime minister Nikola Pashinyan in its 2020 war with Azerbaijan and the Kyrgyz Republic's request, in 2010, the refusal of which prompted Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko to say that 'further activities of the CSTO (are) unpromising, as the organisation does not respond to a 'coup d'etat' in one of its member-states.' Family squabble In the CSTO's 30 years of existence, the one and only time it sent troops was to Kazakhstan in January. Moscow responded by violently suppressing the people and resulted in Nagy's hanging and Dubcek's prompt replacement. Imre Nagy and Alexander Dubcek both responded to the call from their population for greater freedom.

In 1968, 124,000 troops were sent to Czechoslovakia to crush the 'Prague Spring'.

In 1956, troops were sent to suppress anti-communist protests in Hungary, where approximately 3,000 people died. Unlike most defensive alliances, the Warsaw Pact never deployed troops abroad, but only to its own member-states.

President who died in obscurity