MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan on Tuesday to stress the need for close ties between the two countries, a month after he caused alarm in the former Soviet republic by seeming to question its future as an independent state.
Putin went on to say that most people in Kazakhstan wanted closer relations with Russia and to remain part of the “big Russian world.”
The Ukraine conflict has strained ties between Putin and Nazarbayev, while trade between their two countries has dropped significantly, largely because of the damage caused to the Russian economy by Western sanctions. …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
