DUSHANBE, September 2, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said Kazakhstan could quit the Eurasian Economic Union (EES) if membership threatens its independence. 

Nazarbayev told the Khabar TV channel on August 30 that Kazakhstan has a full right to quit an economic alliance with Russia and Belarus if regulations agreed upon earlier are not fulfilled.

He said that “Astana will never be a member of an organization that imposes threat to Kazakhstan''s independence.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on August 29 that Nazarbayev "managed to create a state on a territory that never had statehood."

Moscow''s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine have raised concerns in the West and among Russia''s neighbors that the Kremlin may seek control over other parts of the former Soviet Union, Radio Liberty reported on September 1.