History of Kazakhstan
A week after the election, Nazarbayev became the president of an independent state when the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed documents dissolving the Soviet Union. He quickly convened a meeting of the leaders of the five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), raising the possibility of a Turkic confederation of former republics as a counterweight to the Slavic states of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in whatever federation might succeed the Soviet Union. This move persuaded the three Slavic presidents to include Kazakhstan among the signatories of a recast document of dissolution. Kazakhstan's capital lent its name to the Alma-Ata Protocol, the declaration of principles of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On 16 December 1991, five days before the declaration, Kazakhstan became the last of the republics to proclaim its independence.
Demographics of Russia
The Kazakhs in Russia are mostly not recent immigrants. The majority inhabit regions bordering Kazakhstan such as the Astrakhan (16% of the population are Kazakhs), Orenburg (6% of the population are Kazakhs), Omsk (4% of the population are Kazakhs) and Saratov (3% of the population are Kazakhs) oblasts. Together these oblasts host 60% of the Kazakh population in Russia. The number of Kazakhs slightly decreased between 2002 and 2010 due to emigration to Kazakhstan, which has by far the strongest economy in Central Asia (Russia does receive immigration from Kazakhstan, but they are mainly ethnic Russians); other Central Asian populations, especially Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kyrgyz, have continued to rise rapidly. (Turkmen are an exception; citizens of Turkmenistan do not have visa-free access to Russia.)