Good summary. The region has a looooong history. It's a real cultural Gordian knot. Anything before 2000 ya is hard to sort from all the turmoil since.
For a quick introduction to the steppe and Russia, Russia and the Russians by Geoffrey Hosking is a pretty interesting book. It begins when Russians were a few tribes and just before they were conquered by the Mongols.
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[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 28.8 ms ] threadIn 2007 geoglyphs were found on G.Earth in N. Kazakh - now at least 260 are counted - and one dated to 8,000ka. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_Geoglyphs]
For anyone wondering if this is a typo, it is. OP means 8kya or 8000ya (though 10kya would be more accurate).