Is Atyrau ready to meet Putin?

By Murat Sultangaliyev

M. BocharnikovOn May 16, the Plenipotentiary ambassador of the Russian Federation in Kazakhstan Mikhail Bocharnikov, during his working visit to Atyrau had a meeting with the representatives of the local ethno-cultural centers at the Small Hall of regional government administration building.

- At the end of May in Astana an important event is going to take place. The presidents of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus are going to sign the agreement about the creation of the Euroasian economic union, - said the ambassador. - If the parliaments of all three countries ratify this contract by the end of the year, then the agreement will come into force at the beginning of 2015. This will be a very serious step in our economic integration.

We arrived to Atyrau together with Said Zabitov, the General Consul of Russia located in Uralsk, to look how the preparations for the forthcoming forum of interregional cooperation of Kazakhstan and Russia is going. The forum will take place in your city in the fall of this year. The exact date of this meeting is under discussion. Similar meetings of the presidents, the members of the governments and heads of regions of our countries have been held before and they showed their efficiency. Yesterday at the meeting with the regional governor Baktykozha Izmukhambetov we noted that meetings of such format aren’t held anywhere in the world. I am sure that the forthcoming forum will be finalized with signing of a number of important mutually advantageous documents. The forum will be dedicated to the innovations in oil-extracting industry.

Then the meeting participants asked the qustions.

The first question was asked by the Chairman of the Chechen-Ingush national cultural center “Vainakh” Seitamin Akaev:

- We already lived in “the union”, then this “union” was disintegrated and now we are creating a new one. What pluses will this union bring us? Will its participants be equal?

M. Bocharnikov:

- Our union will be equal. The mechanisms of the union are made in such a way that each party has the right to resolve the issues on the basis of consensus, if it considers that its national sovereignty or the rights are undermined. The governing body of the Customs Union and Common economic space – the Euroasian Economic Commission has been charged with supranational functions that are under strict control of the Council of the Euroasian Economic Commission. This commission consists of three Deputy Prime Ministers. They take the proposed decisions to the Supreme Euroasian Economic Council that is elected on the level of the heads of governments or the presidents.

I very often hear this phrase that we already lived in the “union”. But I hear that only from the representatives of western countries. Let me ask you a question: what characteristics that are typical for the Soviet Union we are transferring to the new economic union? Political governing bodies, general parliament and foreign policy? Nothing of the kind. And what integration association in the modern world possesses the above things? The European Union. The western critics, first of all, need to pay attention to themselves. What are they warning us about? About things that they created themselves?

The Chairman of “Renaissance” ethno-cultural center of the deported Crimean Bulgarians Yuri Koustadinchev:

- Is it planned to introduce a common currency?

M. Bocharnikov:

– I cannot say that we are not planning that. Ths issue of common currency is still in the air and nothing more than that. Our countries aren't ready yet for the common currency. What will be in ten years, time will show.

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