SENIOR RUSSIAN EXPERT BLASTS KAZAKHSTAN.

Konstantin Zatulin, director of the Russian government-sponsored research institute on CIS countries, yesterday described Kazakhstan’s policies as unfriendly to Russia. He faulted those policies for "seeking counterweights to Russia by maintaining especially warm relations with the United States, by its growing ties to China, and by strengthening the Central Asian Union." Moreover, Zatulin observed, Kazakhstan is opening its mineral wealth to its "far-away partners" rather than to Russia. Zatulin also accused Kazakhstan of oppressing its Russian population, limiting its role in the economy, and building an "ethnocratic society." (Russian agencies, January 26)

Closely associated with Russian nationalist circles, Zatulin headed the Duma’s CIS Affairs Committee before being chosen by the government to head its "Institute for Diaspora and Integration Affairs," more widely known as the CIS Affairs Institute. He was commenting on the disagreements that surfaced last week between presidents Boris Yeltsin and Nursultan Nazarbaev over CIS issues and mineral rights in the Caspian Sea. (See Monitor, January 22 and 26)

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