The agency notes that “only” Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar and Deputy Economy Minister Timur Zhaksylykov will go to SPIEF from Kazakhstan.
The Tokayev administration declined to comment on the decision, Reuters emphasizes.
Journalists noted that at the forum in 2022, Tokayev “refused to obey the Kremlin’s line regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and stated that Kazakhstan does not recognize the so-called “LDNR”.
The President of Kazakhstan then called these formations “quasi-state territories.” It was in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Reuters writes that earlier Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was invited to SPIEF by Putin, refused to participate in the forum in St. Petersburg.
On May 24, in Moscow, during a speech at the Eurasian Economic Forum, Tokayev said that relations between Russia and Belarus are a problem for other countries because of their very close interaction.
“The conceptual reality (or specifics) that we need to take into account is the presence of the Union State in the form of Belarus and Russia within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union. […] Creation of a state according to the formula “two countries – one state” with a single political, legal, military, economic, monetary, cultural, humanitarian space, with a single union government, with a single union parliament … I apologize, and even nuclear weapons one for two now,” he said.
According to the US, Kazakhstan is helping Russia bypass international sanctions.
