Putin Humiliated by One of Russia's Closest Allies

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been mocked on social media after the leader of a close Russian ally apparently embarrassed Putin by not making his opening remarks in Russian.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan started his remarks at the 19th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum on Thursday by speaking in Kazakh, which appeared to leave Russian attendees taken aback.

Kazakhstan is a key Russian ally and the meeting between the two leaders comes amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine which began in February last year and has seen Putin diplomatically isolated by Western nations.

Video shared to social media site X, formerly Twitter, by Bakhti Nishanov of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), a U.S. body, on Thursday, showed Tokayev speaking in Kazakh.

"This is an encapsulation of the tables turned in the Kazakhstan-Russia relations: President of Kazakhstan pulls a power move and opens his speech to the visiting Russian delegation headed by Putin speaking Kazakh," Nishanov wrote.

"You can see the bewilderment and confusion among the delegation," he added.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Other social media users also weighed in on what appeared to be an unusual situation for the Russian officials in attendance.

Marc Bennetts, foreign correspondent for The Times and Sunday Times, wrote: "He also seems to have deliberately mangled Putin's name as payback for Putin's apparent inability to pronounce his name."

Bennetts was referring to the fact that Putin had raised eyebrows on Thursday for mispronouncing Tokayev's name.

Maria Drutska, who describes herself as working in the Ukrainian foreign affairs sector, also reacted to the video of Tokayev's remarks.

"Kazakhstan's President Tokayev, during the meeting with putin, started speaking in Kazakh, leaving the entire russian delegation bewildered," Drutska wrote.

Visegrád 24, an X account that aggregates news, also shared Nishanov's video and wrote: "Changing times... During Putin's visit to Kazakhstan, the Kazakh president opened his speech to in Kazakh instead of Russian."

"It had never happened before. The Russian delegation was shocked as they started looking for translation devices," the post added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia released a statement about Putin's meeting with Tokayev via Twitter and Telegram on Friday.

"We talk about Russia and Kazakhstan being allies, but I would like to emphasize that we are not just allies—at least that is how we see it in Russia—but the very closest of allies," the Russian president said.

Kazakhstan has remained an important bilateral ally for Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine. The country was part of the former Soviet Union and became independent in 1991.