Russia: Putin holds bilateral talks with Kyrgyz leader Atambayev

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev to talk over economic and political ties between two countries in Sochi, Thursday. Putin congratulated Atambayev on the recent parliamentary elections won by Atambayev's Social Democratic Party (SDPK). "I would like to congratulate you on the successful campaign in the parliamentary elections," Putin said. The Russian leader also stressed that he wanted to congratulate Atambayev "not on the election results, despite the fact that they were successful, but on the way they were conducted - at the highest level, according to all norms and traditions of democratic countries as well as the demands of international organisations." SDPK took 38 seats out of a 120-member legislature. According to Atambayev, relations between the two countries have reached a "completely new level," emphasising that "not a single political party" used "anti-Russian slogans or anti-Russian rhetoric" during the elections. He said this was a "big difference" to the elections held five years ago. Earlier in August, Putin met with Atambayev in the Tajikistani capital of Dushanbe to discuss Kyrgyzstan's integration into the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Kyrgyzstan joined the EEU on August 12. Atambayev signed a bill on his country's accession to the EEU on May 21, with other EEU members Armenia, Belarus and Russia ratifying the document.