“There was a referendum (in Crimea - KazTAG). We did not recognize Crimea as part of Russia, because then I had to recognize Ossetia, Abkhazia, Kosovo, they would also ask us to be recognized, ”Nazarbayev said in an interview with American director Oliver Stone in the film“ Kazakh. The history of the golden man ”.
Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimea in early 2014. This, among other things, became the reason for the ongoing trade and economic blockade of Russia since 2014 through various anti-Russian sanctions. The overwhelming majority of countries did not recognize Crimea as Russian, considering the Kremlin's actions illegal.
Photo source: picture from an open source