President Nazarbayev on tensions in Ukraine and Afghanistan
Social problems are the true cause of the tensions in Ukraine, Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev said at the meeting with heads of diplomatic missions in Astana earlier this week.
“Whatever experts may be saying about the causes of the present complications in Ukraine, the overriding reasons are social ones,” he declared adding that Ukraine had an excellent start being the second largest soviet economy with a population of 50 million people and “had to first attend to economic issues and deal with politics later”. But the way things have been unfolding, after 20 years Ukraine finds itself with an “economy that is 25% smaller than that of Kazakhstan”.
In his speech the President of Kazakhstan also touched upon Afghanistan that is “to hold elections and see withdrawal of the coalition forces this year.” Nursultan Nazarbayev thanked the United States, Germany, Great Britain and other nations for their contribution in stabilizing the region.
