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Kazakhstan suggests extending highway from China to Russia's St. Petersburg

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BURUBAI VILLAG/Kazakhstan/. May 29. /TASS/. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Friday he will ask Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to extend to St. Petersburg a new highway that will go through Kazakhstan from its border with China.

"We are finishing the construction of the most modern highway from the border with China to Russia. This is 2,700 kilometers [1,677 miles]. I will ask Dmitry [Medvedev] to extend this highway," Nazarbayev said at the meeting with the heads of governments of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Kazakh leader explained that the idea relates to the construction of the road from Kazan, in Russia’s Tatarstan republic and then to St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city. He said the creation of this highway would help the implementation of promising business projects along the road.

The project will also encourage the development of the economies of Central Asian republics - Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, Nazarbayev said.

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