Russian President Vladimir Putin, at talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Moscow, said that before the visit of his foreign counterpart, he spoke with the head of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, according to Putin, relations between Russia and Kazakhstan confirm that Moscow is strengthening the sovereignty of its neighbors, RIA Novosti reports.

According to Putin, this is the second very good example of the fact that Russia only supports the sovereignty of our neighbors and strengthens it in every possible way. Kazakhstan's example confirms our policy.

"At the request of the Kazakh leadership, we supported them within the CSTO in connection with the external aggression of international terrorism. And as soon as this problem was gone, at the request of the leadership of Kazakhstan, we withdrew all our armed forces within the CSTO contingent and continue to cooperate with Kazakhstan in all areas of work, which, of course, benefit both Russia and Kazakhstan,” Putin added.