Putin holds talks in Astana and gets Kazakh president's name wrong again

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Astana for talks and signings with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has mispronounced the president’s name several times.

Source: Kursyv (Italics); Radio Azattik; a video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel

Details: The Russian dictator arrived in Astana on an official visit on the morning of 9 November. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met him as he stepped off the plane. In the afternoon, a welcoming ceremony was held at the Akorda residence. 

After the ceremony, the two presidents opened the 19th Interregional Cooperation Forum, which this year is being held in Kostanay, northern Kazakhstan, via video link from Akorda. 

At a private meeting, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told his guests: "Today, when you arrived in Astana early in the morning, a crescent moon appeared in the sky, accompanied by very bright stars. This is a rare phenomenon. I think it is a very good sign." 

Tokayev recalled that Putin had arrived in Astana a few days ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Alliance, which Kazakhstan and Russia signed on 11 November 2013.

The Russian dictator once again stumbled over the Kazakh president’s name, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Putin said the name indistinctly several times as if trying to say it faster.

The first time had been at the Interregional Cooperation Forum opening, when he inarticulately pronounced Tokayev's patronymic as Kelemich (or Kelemovich) instead of Kemelevich. The second time, he confused the president’s first name and patronymic: as he thanked Tokayev for inviting him to Astana, Putin said "Kemel Jomartovich", but immediately corrected himself.

This isn't the first time this has happened.

Putin called Tokayev "Kamel Jomartovych" in January 2022 during an online meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

The last time Putin mispronounced Tokayev's name was on 13 October 2023 at a summit of the Council of CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Heads of State in Kyrgyzstan. He thanked the Kazakh president for the idea of creating an international organisation to promote the Russian language, but failed to pronounce his name correctly.

In the summer of 2022, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he did not recognise the "quasi-state formations" in Donbas that were used as a pretext for Russia’s war against Ukraine. A year later, he distanced himself from events in Russia.

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