ASTANA. May 21. KAZINFORM /Aigul Tulekbayeva/ “The global crisis equally affected Kazakhstan and Russia. But there are positive strides both in the world economy and in the economies of our countries”, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin stated at the meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Akorda Palace today. Alongside the Head of the Russian Government noted presence of risks, especially in the banking sector. “This is credit default”, he said. V. Putin noted that Kazakhs Government gave special attention to the anti-crisis measures. Determination of the directions of joint work “is of paramount importance” for the two countries, the Russian Premier stressed. “Suffice it to say that the volume of commodity turnover between our countries made nearly USD 20 bln in 2008. This is a high index. I am not speaking about the large projects like space exploration or energy. But all other spheres are closely connected with each other”, V. Putin said. In turn, N. Nazarbayev noted that Kazakhstan observes Russian Government’s anti-crisis activity and reminded of announcement of a new forced industrialization program. The parties had talks in the narrow format as well.