Medvedev to replace Putin in a trip to Kazakhstan

Russian Prime-Minister Dmitry Medvedev will arrive in Kazakhstan instead of president Vladimir Putin, Kommersant writes. Earlier Nursultan Nazarbayev invited Putin to Astana to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between Russia and Kazakhstan on May 25. This trip might have been the first trip of the newly elected Russian president abroad. Putin accepted the invitation. However, recently the Kremlin announced that Belarus would be the first country that Putin would visit on May 31. Dmitry Medvedev would travel to Kazakhstan on May 28 and Putin would be able to visit Kazakhstan only on June 7-8 after the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit in Beijing. This information was confirmed by Medvedev’s press-secretary Natalya Timakova. She specified that Dmitry Medvedev will meet with Nazarbayev and Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Karim Massimov in Astana. After the trip the head of Russia’s government will go to Turkmenistan to attend the meeting of heads of CIS governments. Meanwhile, there is still no information on whether Prime-Minister will fully replace Russian president in his trip to Kazakhstan. In particular, it is not yet clear, whether Medvedev will replace Putin in negotiations on prolongation of the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance that ends at its 20th anniversary and is expected to be renewed and brought to a new level. According to a source in Russian diplomatic rounds, most probably Medvedev will not sign any documents in Astana. This is not the first time that Medvedev replaces Putin. Recently Prime-Minister came back from the G8 summit in Camp David, United States, that Putin failed to attend because he had to finish forming the new government of Russia.