Citizens of a foreign country.

       Once I was struck by one incident in Petropavlovsk. I was in the company of local young guys. We discussed some international football championship. One of them says: “We need to win one more game, and then we’ll leave the group.” I was surprised: “How to win? We have already lost everything and do not go anywhere.” In response, he pulls out his smartphone and shows a table with a Russian group there, and pokes into the Russian flag: “Well, here we are in second place.” Then we both realized what was the matter, and both of us became uncomfortable.

       You see, these guys called “our” national team of Russia. They feel like citizens of Russia. They know little about their homeland – Kazakhstan, but they are very hotly discussing Russian news. They do not want to know Kazakh history and traditions, but they perfectly know the history of Russia and Russian traditions. They speak only Russian and are not going to learn Kazakh. They dream after school to send their children to Russia to Russian universities. They dream of moving to Russia and staying there.

       So who are these guys?

       Which country’s citizens?