ASTANA, December 5. /TASS/. The wish to stage an equivalent of the Ukrainian crisis in Russia has resulted in the “Crimean spring”, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Friday.
“All basic international rights have been violated. Trust among the leaders of major states is waning. The G8 group has been disbanded. What else can this lead to?” he asked. “I am not going to position myself as a defense lawyer of any person, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. But my personal analysis is this: the wish to replicate the “Ukrainian spring” in Russia failed and resulted in the ‘Crimean spring’,” Nazarbayev said.
He warned the world community against underestimating Russia — a large and wealthy country.
“It would be very wrong to underestimate Russia. It is a country with the largest territory and the richest resources. True, sanctions may strip it of some incomes, but the oil, gas and everything else will remain in place,” he said.
Nazarbayev pointed out that any crises were to come to an end some day and “cornering each other roughly is not the best option.”
“The French president and I are coming to the conclusion that compromises and ways out of this situation must be looked for. It should be remembered that Russia is not integrated with the world economy very strongly and a further worsening for it may never happen,” Nazarbayev said.