Russia's ambassador to Kazakhstan Mikhail Bocharnikov said that Moscow understands and respects Kazakhstan's decision to switch Kazakh alphabet to Latin.
"Kazakhstan is one of the states where Russian language is officially recognized by the Constitution. Russia understands and respects the decision of sovereign Kazakhstan with regard to the forthcoming transition of the state language to a Latin-based alphabet," he said speaking at a meeting of parliamentarians of the two countries.
He added that the status of Russian language, judging from firm statements of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and other officials of Kazakhstan, will remain unchanged, and it will continue to be taught as well as stay the language of instruction in secondary schools in Kazakhstan, since the fluency in Russian is considered by the country's leadership an important cultural advantage of Kazakhstan, Kazimform reported.
