Aha Dua Permata: Putin Visits Southern Military District Headquarters in Rostov

Putin Visits Southern Military District Headquarters in Rostov

©Gavriil Grigorov / Pool via Sputnik

President Vladimir Putin has held a closed-doors meeting with high-ranking commanders during an unannounced visit to the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District, which oversees the military operation against Ukraine.

Putin made a stopover in Rostov-on-Don on his way back from a state visit to Kazakhstan, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters early on Friday morning.

Accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and the head of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, Putin “inspected new models of military equipment,” Peskov said, without offering details. The Russian leader also spoke with other top defense officials, who briefed him on the progress of the country’s military operation against Kiev.

Several Russian outlets released a video showing Putin disembarking from his plane and arriving at the HQ, where he was greeted by Shoigu and Gerasimov.

The hardware Putin was shown appeared to be a version of a light all-terrain vehicle produced by the Chinese-American manufacturer AODES which was designed for performing reconnaissance.

Rostov Region borders Russia’s frontline Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and has often come under Ukrainian missile and drone attacks in recent months. Putin’s last previous visit and meeting with the top brass at the Rostov-on-Don HQ took place just last month, and, before that, in August and March.

The visit came amid a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive which has dragged on since June, with even Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, now admitting that Kiev is unlikely to achieve a swift breakthrough.

According to estimates by Russian officials, Ukraine has lost more than 90,000 troops during its long-heralded counteroffensive alone. Launched in early June, the push has failed to yield tangible gains, resulting only in heavy personnel and material losses, with hundreds of military hardware pieces, including assorted Western-supplied vehicles, damaged or destroyed.

Last week, Putin said that Western powers were “changing their tune now [and] saying different things” compared to their previous insistence on inflicting a military defeat on Russia.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on an official visit to Astana, where the leaders highlighted growing bilateral.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during Putin’s official visit to Kazakhstan.

Tokayev congratulated Putin on the tenth anniversary of the signing of the bilateral Treaty on Good Neighborly and Alliance Relations, highlighting the immense "political and, one might say, historical significance" of Putin’s visit to Kazakhstan, rhetoric backed up by the record bilateral trade volume between the neighboring countries, Vedomosti writes

Tokayev stated that 143 joint Russian-Kazakh projects in the field of industrial cooperation worth $33 bln are now being carried out, 140 of which are located in Kazakhstan. According to Tokayev, Kazakhstan assesses the volume of direct Russian investment in the Kazakh economy at $20 bln, while Russia is expecting a level of $17-18 bln. Meanwhile, Kazakh investments in Russia total $6 bln.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
©Pavel Bednyakov/POOL/TASS

Putin’s trip came just one week after French President Emmanuel Macron visited Kazakhstan. Macron’s visit was aimed at strengthening Paris’ cooperation with Astana in ensuring critical uranium supplies for France’s nuclear power sector, as well as diminishing Russia’s influence in the Central Asia region.

According to Andrey Grozin, head of the Central Asia Department at the Institute of CIS Countries, "Kazakhstan is trying to maintain the same tone in relations with both Europe and Russia, continuing its tradition of pursuing a multi-vector foreign policy [by] maneuvering between the major centers of power while extracting diverse dividends from the competition [among major powers for Kazakhstan’s favor]."

Speaking at the start of his talks with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Putin hailed “multi-faceted” ties between the countries and said they would determine new areas of “strategic” cooperation.

Oil-rich Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations have maintained a delicate balancing act, preserving strong economic ties with Moscow but refusing to recognize its annexation of Ukrainian regions.

Speaking after the talks, Tokayev noted that Russia has been Kazakhstan's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching a record $27 billion last year. “We have large opportunities for further expansion of the trade volume,” he said.

Russian and Kazakh officials signed several agreements on energy, customs and labor issues.

Putin said the two countries set “really ambitious tasks for further strengthening of the comprehensive strategic partnership.”

The Russian leader has made few foreign trips since he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The International Criminal Court’s move to indict Putin in March for alleged war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine has affected his travel as any country that is party to the court is obliged to arrest him on its soil. Kazakstan isn’t part of the agreement that created the tribunal.

Putin’s trip to Kazakhstan comes days after French President Emmanuel Macron visited Astana and hailed Tokayev for withstanding geopolitical “pressures," in a hint at Moscow's efforts to keep the neighbor in its orbit.

Relations with Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics in Central Asia have become increasingly important for Russia as it has sought new import routes to bypass bruising Western sanctions over its actions in Ukraine.