Nursultan Nazarbayev: Kazakhstan will not reconsider its democratic development

"Kazakhstan will not reconsider its choice of democratic development," said Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev at a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana on Friday.

Nazarbayev "is upset by the talk that Kazakhstan is paying less attention to democratic processes".

Today 90 per cent of mass media in Kazakhstan are independent, there is no censorship in the country, the president pointed out.

At the current transitional period in the country's development the authorities "will focus on strengthening political stability," Nazarbayev stressed.

Kazakhstan "is leading a tough combat with corruption, and we feel the resistance," he said. In this connection he recalled that "criminal procedures have been initiated against two ministers and a regional governor" in Kazakhstan. "Everything will be settled in compliance with law here," Nazarbayev stressed.

The day before ex-energy minister Mukhtar Ablyazov, ex transport and communications minister Ablay Myrzakhmetov and ex-head of the Pavlodar region Galymzhan Zhakiyanov were arrested on the charges of corruption. Ablyazov and Zhakiyanov are active members of the opposition movement "Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan".