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‘Latin Poison’: Kazakhstan’s Latinization in Russian Media Discourse

In criticizing Kazakhstan’s Latinization effort, Russian media is not defending the Russian language or the Cyrillic alphabet, but the symbolic, ideological, and geopolitical hierarchy of the Russian world. 

Kazakh National Railway Office in Almaty. Signage in Latin. Almaty, May 2026.

In July 2025, my feature titled “Scripts and Power: How Russian Media Frame the Latinization of the Kazakh Language” was published in The Diplomat. There, I argued, based on my analysis of over 200 articles, that Russian media views Latinization through a politicized lens and relies on conspiratorial, colonial, and nostalgic narratives in commenting on Kazakhstan’s script reform. 

Shortly after, Russian outlet Ritm Evrazii published a piece, “Latin Poison for Kazakhstan,” as a direct response to my feature. Its author, Vladislav Makarov, discussed “the bewilderment among Russians caused by Kazakh officials’ stubborn desire to ban the Cyrillic alphabet.” Makarov further argued that Moldovan or Azerbaijani cultures have not become known worldwide because of their switch to Latin and that the new alphabet serves to “tie [post-Soviet republics] to their new overlords.” 

This piece does not mean that my feature caused a significant stir in Moscow. Nevertheless, it is interesting evidence of how, in responding to an English-language feature about Kazakhstan’s script reform, Makarov reproduced the same Russia-centric narratives described in the original feature. In his words, Kazakhstan has been “connected to the Russian World for centuries,” thus justifying Russia’s commentary on Latinization.  

The script reform in Kazakhstan, aimed at transitioning the Kazakh language from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet, has been ongoing since 2017. Among the official reasons for the script change are the intentions to strengthen Kazakh identity and language and to rectify the true Kazakh pronunciation, which was affected by the Soviet-imposed Cyrillic script. Conceived under Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Latinization is to be fully implemented by 2031.

Current President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for a cautious approach to Latinization. The latest version of the alphabet was presented in 2021, which shares similarities with the common Turkic alphabet adopted by the Organization of Turkic States in 2024. With less than five years left, the alphabet is yet to be finalized. A recent statement by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education assured that the work to improve the latest alphabet version was underway. 

Qaganat canteen’s name written in the 2018 version of the Latin alphabet. Almaty, May 2026. Photo by Aziz Berdiqulov

Latinization is intended for the Kazakh language only. So why does Kazakhstan’s script reform, which does not touch Russian at all, provoke such a strong reaction among Russian media? Makarov’s take on the reform sheds light on how Russia perceives Kazakhstan as part of the Russian world, and following this logic, any change within the Russian world affects Moscow. 

The Russian world can be conceptualized as a socially constructed ideological and geopolitical order, which Russia uses to foster belonging, political loyalty, and hierarchy. It rests on the understanding that what unifies the Russian world are the Russian language, the Cyrillic alphabet, and shared history. Its proponents argue that the Russian world is a diverse community representing a multitude of cultures, with Russia holding a legitimately central position.

The Russian world is not a fixed construct and can be adjusted to align with Moscow’s political motivations. It is often juxtaposed with the Western world, portrayed as a civilization in decline. In practice, Moscow uses the Russian world at a variety of levels. One such use is the Russian World Foundation, a state-run institution primarily aimed at promoting and expanding the Russian language, literature, and culture abroad, particularly in Central Asia. Conceptually, Russian media employ the Russian world notion to perpetuate the ideas of Russia’s symbolic and civilizational power. 

My analysis of 77 articles covering Latinization published between 2001 and 2025 by both mainstream (such as Gazeta.Ru, Lenta.Ru, Kommersant) and fringe nationalist outlets (Regnum, Ritm Evrazii) shows how Russian media instrumentalizes the Russian world to engage discursively with the Kazakh alphabet reform. 

Latinization as a Tool to Exit the Russian World

Kazakhstan’s portrayal as a legitimate and natural part of the Russian world is foundational in Russian media coverage of Latinization. Kazakhstan’s presupposed membership in the Russian world enables Russian outlets to present Latinization as a tool Astana is using to exit this transnational civilizational community. Headings such as “Non-Russian World: Kazakhstan is replacing its ‘big brother’” or “Passive defense against the ‘Russian World’” illustrate how Russian media interprets Latinization as a threat to the Russian world’s integrity. The alphabet reform is argued to have the potential to erode the “common cultural space,” which is one of the “invisible links tying together the CIS countries.” The CIS refers to the Commonwealth of Independent States, an intergovernmental organization formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union that counts among its members most, though not all, of the former Soviet republics.

At the same time, the idea of the Russian world is fused with both the imperial and Soviet past, demonstrating the concept’s flexible nature, and this fusion has a variety of effects. First, as discussed in a 2021 article published by Lenta.Ru, Kazakhstan’s very existence is portrayed as an outcome of Soviet politics, since it was the Bolsheviks “who turned Kazakhs into a nation and gifted them a state.” According to the article, Kazakh “statehood, culture, and script were all created in Moscow.” This framing of Latinization not only links Kazakhstan’s nationhood to the Soviet regime but also presents the alphabet reform as a sign of ingratitude to Moscow, which perceives itself as a successor of the Soviet Union.

In another Lenta.Ru article, from 2017, the authors expressed frustration with how Kazakh history books critically approach the Soviet past, one of the outcomes of which was the devastating famine of the 1930s, claiming the lives of over 1.5 million people (one-third of the ethnic Kazakh population of that period). They labeled Latinization as a “symbolic distancing from Russia’s legacy in Kazakhstan,” signs of which they also see in changing the Soviet geographical names to Kazakh. Hierarchical narratives can be observed in a 2017 Vedomosti article, which calls Russia “a metropole,” from which post-Soviet countries are trying to separate out of fear of being “swallowed by the ‘Russian world.’”  

Within the Russian world framework, the Russian language holds a central position and serves as a link that ties Kazakhstan to this transnational community. The Russian language is inseparable from Cyrillic, which Russian media treat not as a mere script but as a symbolic and visual representation of the Russian world. In presenting Latinization as a........

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