On June 17, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, sitting next to Putin at the SPIEF, unexpectedly called the "DPR" and "LPR" "quasi-states" and stated that Kazakhstan would not recognize them. He added that Kazakhstan does not recognize either Taiwan, or Kosovo, or South Ossetia, or Abzakhia: more than 500 or 600 states. Of course it will be chaos."

Vladimir Putin did not take the floor and did not comment on Tokayev's statement. Margarita Simonyan, who moderated the plenary discussion of the two presidents, after Tokayev's detailed answer about Kazakhstan's attitude to the "special operation", thanked him for his frankness. In turn, the President of Kazakhstan reminded Simonyan about the words of her husband, TV presenter Tigran Keosayan, who accused Kazakhstan of “cunning”, which Russia allegedly saved from the mess, and threatened the country due to the cancellation of the May 9 parade. Tokayev called such statements incorrect. “I would like to express some complaints about the statements of a number of Russian deputies, absolutely incorrect statements about Kazakhstan, inaccurate statements, I would say, of journalists and even cultural figures,” Tokayev mentioned Keosayan’s words.

The head of the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” of the “LPR” Vladislav Deinego said that Tokayev has every right to such a position.

“This is a position, the state has the right to such a position [on ‘DPR and LPR’], but it is impossible to turn a blind eye to objective reality, to hide from the changing world order.”

The head of the "DPR" Denis Pushilin limited himself to one word: "We will survive."

Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Lower House of Parliament for CIS Affairs, Deputy Konstantin Zatulin threatened Kazakhstan with measures "as with Ukraine." Twenty years ago, Zatulin openly called for a destabilization of the situation in the CIS countries in order to use local territorial conflicts to strengthen the control of the Kremlin, and in 2014 he took an active part in the annexation of Crimea and, judging by the interceptions of telephone conversations, paid for pro-Russian resistance in eastern Ukraine. Now he threatens Kazakhstan.

“The fact that Kazakhstan did not recognize and does not recognize was clear even without this statement by Tokayev. But what Tokayev said about this in the presence of President Putin seems to be honest, publicly, but, in my opinion, it was incorrect. It looked like a challenge to the president next to him. I had no doubt that our so-called allies in the CIS, the Eurasian Union and the CSTO understand their obligations and their alliance in a very peculiar way. They treat all integration associations like a smorgasbord - what they like, they take, but what they don't like, they don't take. When no one expects anything from them, they could at least keep silent.

They know only too well that a number of regions, settlements with a predominantly Russian population had little to do with what was called Kazakhstan. We are everywhere and everywhere, including in relation to Ukraine, we say: if we have friendship, cooperation and partnership, then no territorial issues are raised. And if not, then everything is possible. As in the case of Ukraine. Therefore, it seems to me that it would be worth paying attention to this side of the matter in Kazakhstan and not only.”

In response, Andrey Turchak, Secretary General of the United Russia Council, advised Zatulin to "keep his opinion to himself."

“You can treat Tokayev’s words about the status of the DNR and LNR, uttered the day before at SPIEF, differently, but this is not a reason for officials to make provocative, tendentious comments in the media. Moreover, it is clearly beyond the boundaries of its competence - the fundamental issues of Russia's foreign policy are exclusively in the sphere of responsibility of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

As for Konstantin Fedorovich, he should have focused on the functions of his committee, the most important of which, on the contrary, is the strengthening of allied and good neighborly relations with the countries of the former USSR.

Finally, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, spoke out in a video message on his Telegram channel. He turned not even directly to Tokayev, but to all members of the CSTO, and repeated the rhetoric of her husband Simonyan Keosayan:

“Odekabeshniks, why are you silent? Why don't you talk about your neighbors? Why don't you try to make the war end? Why do you not have a position against Bandera, Nazis and Nazis who killed our ancestors? We fought together against Bandera. And now, as if nothing had happened, fearing the sanctions of America or Europe, everyone is silent. <...> If there is a state, if there is an ally, he must decide and take his step. When there was a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Putin played a key role. When Kazakhstan began to lose sovereignty, who helped? Russia! And when Russia needs it, everyone is silent - you are afraid of sanctions.”

Tokayev, on the air of Rossiya 24, reacted to these words, again recalling that it was not "Russia that saved Kazakhstan", but the CSTO sent troops.

“I spoke in Moscow and said that for the first time in thirty years, the CSTO somehow showed itself by sending a limited contingent to Kazakhstan, and, I emphasize, not Russia, but the Collective Security Treaty Organization. In Russia, some people misrepresent this whole situation, arguing that Russia saved Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan must now forever serve and bow at the feet of Russia. I believe that this is completely unjustified reasoning, one might say, far from reality.

On June 18, it became known that Tokayev refused the Order of Alexander Nevsky, which is awarded to prominent foreign political figures. This was reported by Kazakh political scientist Yerbol Yedilov: “The head of state thanked for the honor. However, he decided not to accept either domestic or foreign awards until the end of his presidential powers. For the same reason, during a recent visit to Bishkek, the President refused the highest Kyrgyz order "Manas" of the first degree.

Later, the information was confirmed by Tengrinews, citing the press service of the President of Kazakhstan. The press service also added that Tokayev would not accept either domestic or foreign awards at all until the end of his term. And the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, immediately stated that there were no plans to reward Tokayev. “I don’t know where this information comes from, because no award was planned,” Peskov told Rise.

On June 18, Kommersant reported that Russia had suspended oil shipments from Kazakhstan. According to the publication, 50 mines from the Second World War were found in the waters of the port of Novorossiysk; the water area was closed to ships, and mine clearance work was scheduled for June 20. They are scheduled to be completed by the end of the month. At the same time, over two years, about 200 sonar and 50 magnetic targets were found in the port waters, some of which were potentially explosive. And on June 15, three mines from the Second World War were destroyed near the port. In March, the shipment of oil in the port of Novorossiysk was suspended for repairs: then, during three weeks of downtime, the volume of lost production amounted to about 1.3 million tons of oil.

On June 19, it became known that the Kazakh authorities called on other countries, including nuclear powers, to develop a plan for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by 2045. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi in an article for Liter.kz.

“The current military conflict on the territory of Ukraine, talk about the return of nuclear weapons and mutual threats to use nuclear weapons make us think more than ever about the collective vulnerability of humanity and the urgent need to ban and eliminate these deadly weapons,” said the head of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.

The independence of the "DNR" and "LNR" is recognized only by the Russian Federation, as well as partially recognized by Abkhazia and South Ossetia.