Kazakh leader meets Putin in first post-election trip abroad

MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s leader has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a week after winning a new seven-year term by a landslide. Kazakhstan is a significant Russian ally, sharing a 7,600-kilometer (4,750-mile) border. But President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has kept a distance amid the conflict in Ukraine, notably declining this summer to recognize the Kremlin’s declaration of separatist Ukraine regions as sovereign states. Tokayev also has moved to reduce the influence of his Russia-friendly authoritarian predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled for three decades. Nazarbayev resigned in 2019, but had retained significant influence as head of the national security council until Tokayev removed him from the post this year.