From the State-of-the-Nation Address of the President of the RK
We should be proud of this. Kazakhstan’s high international reputation allowed our country to become the chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. It is a great honour for us. It brings the highest responsibility of chairing the OSCE during the most complicated period of modern history of mankind
The early Parliamentary election on January 15, 2012 took place in a peaceable, calm, free and transparent atmosphere and represents an important step in Kazakhstan’s continuing political development.
On 16th November 2011, President Nazarbayev accepted a petition of 53 Majilis Deputies to dissolve parliament and set elections for January 15, 2012. The elections, for both the Majilis (lower house of parliament) and Maslikhats (local bodies), were last held in 2007.
Integration processes within the Custom Union are creating certain challenges for Russia and require that the government create optimal conditions for business, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said.
"Since the collapse of the Soviet Union everyone has been talking, talking and talking of integration. The CIS functioned for better or worse and played its role but true integration has begun now [after the launch of the Customs Union]," he said at an expanded session of the board of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He advised everyone present to read the articles of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev published in the daily Izvestia.
Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev supported Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s idea of a Eurasian Union in an October 25 Izvestia article.
Putin called for a “new integration project” for Eurasia in an October 4 Izvestia article, saying it could tie the Pacific Rim to Europe.