Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent diplomatic push into Central Asia yielded high-minded rhetoric but few substantive gains, as Kazakhstan resisted Kremlin pressure on trade and labor, foreign policy expert Paul Goble told Kyiv Post. Faced with limited returns in Astana, Putin dedicated a significant portion of his post-visit press conference to lecturing Armenia – a move Goble described as a sign of Moscow’s anxiety over its fading influence in the former Soviet space.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The remarks came as Moscow has intensified pressure on Yerevan over its pro-European course. Russia has warned Armenia that it could lose preferential fuel and energy arrangements if it continues its EU path, while the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union has raised the possibility of suspending Armenia over its European ambitions. No real wins for Russia in Kazakhstan While Moscow hoped to secure critical concessions during the high-level talks, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used his diplomatic experience to protect Astana’s strategic autonomy, Goble said. “Putin didn’t get everything he wanted in Kazakhstan,” Goble said. “Kazakhstan has a president who is very skilled as a diplomat, who gives on some symbolic things and tries to take away substantive things.” According to Goble, this left the Kremlin with little more than public-relations language it could use at home. “If one examines what’s happened, Putin gets a lot of nice words he can quote,” Goble said. “He gets a lot fewer things that Russia really wants.”