Stay on as President, Kazakh leader tells Putin

Moscow, Aug 16: Follow my example, Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview today - ignore foreign criticism, change Russia's constitution and stay on as leader.

The 67-year-old Nazarbayev has headed the Central Asian oil producing state since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and this year pushed for constitutional reforms which will allow him to remain president for life.

''I don't understand why the Russian president has to finish his presidency and leave,'' Nazarbayev said in an interview with Russian television station Vesti in his newly built capital Astana in the middle of the Kazakh steppe.

''You know, you can look and listen to what they say abroad and in Europe, and I have been listening for 15 years. They can say anything, but a president should do what his people and state need.'' Putin is hugely popular in Russia but has always said he will resist public and political pressure at home to stay on for a third successive presidential term after his second - and according to the Russian constitution final - term expires next year.

Nazarbayev, in contrast, has drawn some criticism from Western democracy groups for pushing through constitutional changes likely to be rubber stamped at a snap parliamentary election this Saturday which will allow him to stay on indefinitely as president.

''When your people assess your work, the results are all, the rest is rubbish,'' he told his two Russian interviewers. ''Our people have elected us, we have been working for them and the rest is all secondary.'' The interview was shot before Nazarbeyev flew to the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek for a regional leaders' summit which included Putin.

Reuters>