MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has held a telephone conversation with his Kazakh counterpart Alikhan Smailov, congratulating him on his appointment as Kazakhstan’s prime minister, the Russian cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the two heads of government reaffirmed their commitment to boosting cooperation between the two countries.
"The heads of government emphasized the need to continue boosting constructive cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan in various fields. They paid special attention to the need to step up interaction in terms of integration within the Eurasian Economic Union," the Russian government said.
Mishustin also sent a congratulatory message to Smailov. "In the message, he particularly highlighted his readiness to engage in joint activities to strengthen trade, economic, investment, scientific, technical, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, as well as to create conditions for promoting major joint projects in energy, industry, high technologies, transport infrastructure, and other fields," the statement specified.
The Kazakh authorities announced earlier that the phone call had been Smailov’s first foreign contract as the country’s new prime minister.
Protests erupted in various Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots that involved attacks on police officers, service members, and government buildings in many cities of the country, primarily in Almaty. Thousands of people were injured, and the number of casualties is unknown. The CSTO sent peacekeepers to the Central Asian country at President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s request. Law and order, the Kazakh authorities affirm, was generally restored to all of the country’s regions.