Kazakhstan owes success to rigid power vertical - Nazarbayev
ASTANA. March 17 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan has achieved success thanks to the advantages of the strong presidential power, the country's President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
"[It] was availed of 100%. All our successes we are now proud of - there were shortcomings too, of course - it is only thanks to this [power] that we achieved them," Nazarbayev said in an interview with the national media, which was broadcast on state television channels on Friday evening.
Had there been political competition in Kazakhstan, "it would not be a competition but a brawl, because there is no political culture [here]," the president said.
"This is what we watched in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, watched in Ukraine and elsewhere. Maybe it is good when coups happen all the time - one, another, and a third - but what does the people gain from it? Because a good government system, one has to say, is one that creates the best conditions for living and everyday activities," the president said.
It is for this reason that Kazakhstan owes its successes in implementing its state programs "precisely to the rigid power vertical which made sure that the programs get accepted and implemented and the people see their results," he said.
"None of our programs was empty, they were supplied with appropriate means, monitoring and so on," Nazarbayev said.
