RUSSIA-KAZAKHSTAN TIES SEEN LEADING TO “EURASIAN UNION.”

Kazakhstan’s deputy premier Nigmatzhan Isingarin told Alma-Aty radio June 19 that his country’s economic dependence on Russia left it with no option but close bilateral cooperation. Among the recent steps in this direction were the January 1995 accords ending tariffs on the “internal” Russian-Kazakhstan border and setting up joint border guards at the “external” border, talks about the creation of a mixed Russian-Kazakhstan border guards service, the transfer of control of Kazakhstan enterprises to joint control, and the recent decision to hand over to Russian control the city of Leninsk. Isingar said that such ties pointed toward the formation of the “Eurasian Union” which Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been pushing since 1994.

Tajik Prisoner Exchange Advances.