ASTANA, JANUARY 9, RIA NOVOSTI - Russia and Kazakhstan have every chance soon to double their trade turnover and the amount of other bilateral economic contacts, or achieve an even greater increase, President Vladimir Putin said to the media after summitry with Nursultan Nazarbayev, his Kazakh counterpart, in Astana today. The desired success depends on how quickly the two countries can remove bureaucratic barriers, he added.
Mr. Putin pointed out an impressive scope of bilateral economic partnership. The Russian-Kazakh trade turnover has hit an US$5.5 billion mark, which he described as "very good", though much still remains to do.
First of all, the two countries must remove all obstacles to their partnership-a matter that was dynamically discussed during summitry. It involves frontier and customs issues, and transport links, among others, said President Putin as he called to disentangle the red tape as quickly as possible.
