Putin urges Central Asian states to step up trade with Russia

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged the leaders of five Central Asian states to boost their trade with Russia, as Moscow seeks to build back its influence in a region that is also being courted by China. Russia's total trade turnover last year with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan was over $45 billion - a "good result" but well short of the level of its bilateral trade with Belarus, which has a fraction of their combined population, Putin said. He told a summit in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, that there was therefore good potential for growth. The five Central Asian states were ruled from Moscow until 1991 as part of the Soviet Union, and Russia still regards the...