Where Is Kazakhstan, Anyway?

      In miles, Kazakhstan runs to about 12,000 miles from Tahoma, California.  It's located in what we Westerners call Central Asia.  Its northern border fronts the Russiya Federation for over 1000 miles.  Its southern border runs along other "Stans": Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan.  It also has a sizable border with our friend, China, in the east.   Most of the country is a dry basin area geologically separate from the Ural Mountains in the west and the Indian Shield and Himalayan System in the south.
      That's your geography lesson for today; but we are not done yet.  Why, you ask?  The bantam dervish of the Kremlin,  Raz-Putin, is stirring up things on Russiya's southern border.   He's creating another focal point for outsiders to gaze over as he thrashes about the Kremlin's hallways, looking for love.
      The president of Kazakhstan said in a statement, that his country's independence is paramount to the future and will not be jeopardized by the FSB of Vlad Putin.  Strong words, surely issued as warning.  Kazakhstan is not Ukraine, and has vast natural resources; but , of course, landlocked, dependent on transportation networks and pipelines to move those same resources.   If one gazes at the map, it's hard to overlook the immense size of the existing Russiya federation, stretching east to west across 11 time zones from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea, and enjoying an Arctic coastline second to none.  And why does Mad Vlad want more territory to come under his control?
      It must be in the genetic makeup of the Russiya brain.  Is fear an inherited characteristic?  Recent neuro-scientific discoveries indicate this is true.   The epi-genome, the outer shell of a gene, does carry the direct  influence of the preceding generation.  So one can assume, modern Russiyans are born in a fearful state, concerned about foreigners, interlopers, spies, etc.  Mad Vlad is playing an old Russiya strategy.   Ok.  We get it.
    Now, enough.   We in Tahoma have plenty to worry about right here at Lake Tahoe.  Kazakhstan?  Please.