Discipline amongst Kazakh ministers criticised

The prime minister of Kazakhstan, Kasymzhomart Tokayev, has complained of a lack of discipline among government ministers and officials.

He said many were spending too much time in the country's old capital, Almaty -- often leaving the new capital, Astana on a Friday and not returning until Tuesday.

The seat of government was moved to the remote and windswept city of Astana in 1997, but many families of government employees still live fifteen hundred kilometres away in Almaty.

Mr Tokayev said the government was thinking of ways to stop the weekly exodus.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service