Overview
- After formal negotiations at the Kremlin, the Russian and Kazakh presidents watched a gala performance from the Bolshoi Theatre’s Tsar’s Box.
- Bolshoi and Mariinsky chief Valery Gergiev, Russia’s culture minister Olga Lyubimova, and Kazakhstan’s culture minister Aida Balaeva joined the leaders in the box.
- The program featured more than ten instrumental and choreographic pieces, including Russian patriotic songs and classical ballet selections.
- Vladimir Putin praised the performers and used the Kazakh word “altyn,” calling the artists “gold.”
- Earlier the same day, the two presidents delivered a joint video address to participants of a forum in Uralsk, Kazakhstan.