We shouldn’t slide towards cold war and tough confrontation: President Nazarbayev

 We shouldn’t slide towards cold war and tough confrontation, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev stated referring to the situation around Ukraine, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports.

Following his talks with French President Francois Hollande, French journalists asked the two presidents on their opinions on developments in Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and on Russian President Putin’s statements related to the West.

“The issue has multiple layers (…) all international laws have been violated; mutual trust of national leaders has been diminished; G8 has been dissolved; where should all this lead to?”, President Nazarbayev said.

“One shouldn’t undervalue Russia’s power … it’s the biggest nation in terms of territory, one of the richest nations. They are incurring losses due to the sanctions, but they still possess oil and gas. Crises don’t last forever, any war results in peace eventually. Cornering each other is not the best option for all the sides involved”,

President Nazarbayev said, adding that at the talks with Francois Hollande they both had agreed on the need for a compromise.

President Nazarbayev stressed that Vladimir Putin has drummed wide support in Russia. “I suppose that despite all that is being said in the West he is a liberal. But no one can say what might follow after Putin’s tenure, whether there will be national patriotism or communist revanchism (…) Sanctions-involving opposition is a dead end. The sanctions have been imposed in circumvention of the UN. All that has happened in Ukraine is grievous, the confrontation is grievous; but we are committed to looking for ways out. I believe we shouldn’t slide towards cold war and confrontation”, President Nazarbayev said.