NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry has summoned the British ambassador to Kazakhstan for an explanation of a British lawmaker's comments about imposing sanctions on the Central Asian country over its alleged support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies, including the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops.
The controversy erupted when Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge, asked British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss during a debate on sanctions against Russia over its attack on Ukraine, if similar measures could be imposed on Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan for what Hodge called their support of Putin and his policies.
Hodge was referring to comments by Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi on the situation in Ukraine after he echoed the sentiments of Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
Toqaev said after Russia started the full-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24 that the conflict must be solved diplomatically, but stressed that Kazakhstan supports Moscow's policies on the "indivisible security in Eurasia," a concept Russia has been pushing forward while demanding NATO stop expanding eastward and opposing Ukraine's plans to join NATO.
But Deputy Foreign Minister Shakhrat Nuryshev said on March 2 that Tileuberdi's statements were not articulating Kazakhstan's official position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.