Russia ally Kazakhstan refuses to recognise Donetsk, Luhansk as 'independent republics'
India Today
Kazakhstan has refused to recognise Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics.
Kazakhstan, an ally of Russia, has refused to recognise the Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics.
Both the leaders of the disputed Donbas region, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, were present at the 25th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). But even Russian allies for now are apprehensive to recognise them as ‘Heads of Government’.
On Friday, one of the key dignitaries, Kazakhstan President President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, while sharing the stage with President Putin at the plenary session, hit a rare discordant note from Kremlin’s position.
“If the right to self-determination is put into practice all over the world, then there will be over 600 countries instead of the 193 states that are currently members of the United Nations. Of course, that would be chaos,” Tokayev said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"Kazakhstan doesn’t recognize “quasi-state territories which, in our view, is what Luhansk and Donetsk are,” Tokayev said.
He further explained that Kazakhstan does not recognize Taiwan, Kosovo, South Ossetia or Abkhazia, and the same applies to Donetsk and Luhansk.
The question was posed to the Kazakh leader, after Putin justified the military action inside of Ukraine to protect Russian-speakers in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk peoples’ republics of eastern Ukraine.
