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Kyrgyz president begins three-day visit to Moscow

“I cannot say anything definite on that score,” Toktogulov said

BISHKEK, February 23 (Itar-Tass) —— Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev is beginning a three-day working visit to Moscow. He is to hold talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

As the Kyrgyz presidential service has told Itar-Tass, on Thursday afternoon Atambayev will hold a meeting with members of the Kyrgyz community in Moscow. His talks with Medvedev and Putin are due on February 24.

“A wide range of issues concerning bilateral relations will be discussed with Russia’s president and prime minster,” Kyrgyz presidential press-secretary Kadyr Toktogulov told Itar-Tass. At this point it is unclear whether any documents will be signed.

“I cannot say anything definite on that score,” Toktogulov said.

Atambayev took office last December. This will be his first visit to Moscow in the capacity of Kyrgyzstan’s leader. For the first time he arrived in the Russian capital in December 2011 for participation in the informal summit of the CIS heads of government and a meeting leaders of the CSTO member-states. His first official trip outside the CIS was to Turkey.

According to official statistics, Kyrgyz-Russian trade over the past ten years grew several times to 1.5 billion dollars. There are about a hundred countries on the list of Kyrgyzstan’s trading partners, but the share of Russia in the overall volume of export-import operations is as great as 25-27 percent.

Kyrgyzstan imports Russian oil products and exports farm produce and light industry products.

Kyrgyzstan and Russia are members of such regional organizations as the CIS, the CSTO, EurAsEC, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Last autumn Moscow, Astana and Minsk approved Bishkek’s application for joining the Customs Union.

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