Kazakhstan police are investigating a brief appearance of the Ukrainian flag on a large LED screen in the capital Astana during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports "Reuters".
Ukraine's flag - with its horizontal stripes of blue and yellow - appeared briefly late last night in place of Russia's white, blue and red tricolor on a screen located on one of Astana's main thoroughfares.
Putin was already in town at the time and the screen was quickly turned off. However, photos and videos of the incident did not take long to appear on the Internet.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Internal Affairs said it is checking all possible versions, including a technical problem and a hacker attack.
During Putin's visit to Astana, hackers hacked the LED screen and changed the Russian flag tricolor to that of Ukraine. A billboard company representative blamed it on a "cable short circuit."#BREAKING #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar pic. twitter.com/Rj5i2G0pIN
— Target Reporter (@Target_Reporter) November 27, 2024
According to a public opinion poll conducted last year, most Kazakhs are neutral about the Russian-Ukrainian war, but among the rest, supporters of Ukraine significantly outnumber those of Russia.
Since Russia is one of Kazakhstan's biggest trading partners, problems in its economy often spill over into the neighboring country.
Yesterday, Kazakhstan's tenge currency fell to a historic low against the US dollar after the sharp weakening of the Russian ruble.
Putin's visit also comes amid tensions in agricultural trade following Russia's ban on imports of grain, fruit and other agricultural products from Kazakhstan in October. Moscow imposed the ban after Kazakhstan banned imports of Russian wheat in August.
Although President Kassim-Jomart Tokayev has made a number of gestures welcomed by Moscow, such as initiating the creation of an international body to support the Russian language in the former Soviet Union, his government has sought to maintain friendly relations with the West as well.
p>Last month, Astana said it had no plans to join BRICS, the bloc of emerging economies that Putin hopes to build as a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.
In addition, Kazakhstan has committed to complying with Western sanctions against Russia, although some Kazakh companies have been caught circumventing them.