MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed the claim by the US news agency Bloomberg that Kazakhstan is a ‘backyard’ for Russian President Vladimir Putin as an absurdity and an information war.
"All this is a foolish thing. These are all information wars and so on," the Russian presidential spokesman stressed in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
A fragment of the interview was posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.
Kazakhstan is a sovereign country that develops cooperation in all possible directions and does not do it in the "either side with these or with those" mode, the Russian presidential spokesman said.
"This is a self-sufficient country but is our strategic ally. And, being guided by these relations of advanced strategic partnership, we develop our own relationships with Kazakhstan," he pointed out.
Moscow values these relationships with Astana, Peskov said.
"They are very broad: both mutual investment and trade are growing. This also relates to cultural interaction and interaction in the field of education: the prospects are the broadest," the Kremlin press secretary said, outlining areas of bilateral cooperation.
"That is why, we will further develop these relationships. These are precisely the relationships that rest on mutual respect, mutual benefit and truly allied ties where no one imposes anything on anyone and does not dictate terms. This is what we safeguard," Peskov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan this week. French President Emmanuel Macron visited the Central Asian country in early November. Covering Macron’s visit, the news agency Bloomberg described Kazakhstan as ‘Putin’s backyard’ in the headline. Astana lashed out at this wording, stressing that Kazakhstan was an independent state.