MOSCOW/ASTANA, May 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit - the highest status on the diplomatic protocol - to Kazakhstan.
Diplomatic practices allow only one state visit to a country per presidential term. The protocol of such a visit implies special honors and overall lavishness of ceremonies. Typically, such visits last several days and include a cultural program.
"This visit is [Putin’s] second state visit [to Kazakhstan]. It is intended, at the suggestion of our Kazakh friends, to highlight the unprecedentedly high level of relations between our two countries," Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said.
Putin’s visit to Astana will last for three days from May 27 to 29. It will coincide with the EAEU summit events to be held in Astana on May 28-29, i.e., with the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.
Day one
As Ushakov pointed out on numerous occasions, in the context of Putin’s various visits, informal one-on-one talks are often the most productive ones.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will arrive at the Astana airport on May 27 to personally greet Putin. Upon arrival in Astana, Putin will travel with Tokayev to the residence of the Kazakh president, "where an informal, friendly, one-on-one lunch between the two leaders will take place."
It will be the 39th personal meeting between Putin and Tokayev in less than seven years.
State visit
Tokayev, who paid a state visit to Russia last year, noted the high level of his reception in Moscow. During that visit, he invited Putin to pay another state visit to Kazakhstan in 2026, saying that "it’s not about the protocol, it’s about the nature of things." The Russian leader accepted the invitation.
Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Alexey Borodavkin told TASS in an interview in February that "such annual exchanges of visits have already become established practice." He expressed hope that "the visit of the Russian president to Kazakhstan will become one of the most vivid pages in the history of Russian-Kazakh interstate relations and will provide an additional impetus to the dynamic development of fruitful cooperation."
Vladimir Putin is a welcomed guest in Kazakhstan. Over the past 26 years, he visited the country 33 times. His first-ever visit to Kazakhstan took place during his first presidential year, in October 2000.