Kazakhstan summons Russian ambassador over calls to expel Ukrainian envoy

By Meiramgul Kussainova

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AA) – Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it summoned the Russian ambassador for talks over Moscow’s insistence that the Central Asian country should expel the Ukrainian envoy.

A “tough” meeting was held with Alexey Borodavkin, focusing on the statement made Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova that “does not correspond with the spirit of equal strategic partnership,” read a statement.

Russia has been pressing Kazakhstan to expel Ukrainian Ambassador Pyotr Vrublevsky, who caused furor in Moscow with his remarks in August about killing Russians.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called in Kazakh Ambassador Ermek Kosherbaev on Tuesday, where he was told that Kazakhstan had failed to keep its promise to expel Vrublevsky.

A Russian statement said Vrublevsky had “distinguished himself with inhuman public calls to kill as many Russians as possible, crossing all lines of civilized behavior, not to mention diplomatic ethics.”

Kosherbaev was told that Vrublevsky’s continued presence in Kazakhstan was unacceptable to Russia, and the country should “take measures for the swiftest permanent expulsion” of the Ukrainian envoy.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz