ASTANA, February 28. /TASS/. Russia and Kazakhstan can do a lot to prevent geopolitical games in the area and thwart any rivalry between participants of regional integrational associations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told an international conference "Russia-Kazakhstan: Alliance Focused on the Future" on Wednesday.

"Russia and Kazakhstan are capable of doing a lot to keep geopolitical games at bay in our region. [Games] that we’ve seen in other parts of the post-Soviet space, not to mention the Middle East and North Africa," the diplomat said. Experts warn about efforts by third countries in our neck of the woods to whip up discord and rivalry among members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, he noted.

"The bogeyman of anti-Russian sanctions is used here with which they start harassing everyone who remains committed to a partnership and an alliance with Russia," Karasin said.

Giving into this confrontational logic would be a serious mistake, the diplomat warned. "On the contrary, we should use our logic against these schemes. This is the logic of deepening relations based on common sense, pragmatism and mutual benefits. The more successful our bilateral integration processes are, the more inspiring their example is," he stressed.

Moscow’s opponents claim that none of the participants, except for Russia, benefit from this integrational cooperation, Karasin noted. "However, they sweep the material foundation under the rug that we create together for modernizing economies, ensuring advanced processing of raw materials as well as in a number of other sectors. Eurasian integration contributes to the guaranteed sale of a large chunk of goods that we manufacture while using joint infrastructure for their supplies," he said.

The international conference opened in Astana on Wednesday in the Nazarbayev Center, a multifunctional research and educational public institution. The event is bringing together more than 200 participants, including representatives of the Eurasian Economic Commission’s leadership, the presidential administrations and foreign ministries of Russia and Kazakhstan as well as key associations of entrepreneurs of the two countries, heads of foreign diplomatic missions in the Kazakh capital and leading experts and public figures.