Kremlin: Russia's participation in the work of the Organization of Turkic States would be expedient and natural

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on November 2 that Russia's participation in the work of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) would be expedient and natural.

Peskov said: "Russia has a number of regions whose peoples are historically Turkic. Therefore, Russia's participation in the work of such an organization would be quite understandable, expedient and natural." He stressed that this concerns the Russian Federation as a whole, not individual regions.

At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman noted that Moscow has not yet received an official invitation to the organization: "As far as I understand, there has been no official invitation." According to Peskov, the topic will likely be on the agenda of Russia's contacts with its partners, including "with our friends in Astana".

The Kremlin made the statement following a proposal by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. On October 30, Tokayev said it would be right and fair to view positively Russia's intention to join the Organization of Turkic States or to grant it observer status. The Kazakh President based this on the fact that many Turkic peoples have historically lived in Russia and that the country carries out various projects related to the Turkic world.

The Organization of Turkic States was founded in 2009 under the Nakhchivan Agreement as the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States and received its current name at the 2021 Istanbul summit. Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan; Hungary, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have observer status.