We do not have enough energy for the peripheries, neither economical, nor spiritual energy. We do not have enough energy for the Empire! – and there is no need, and let it fall from our shoulders: it is exhausting, it is draining us, and accelerates our demise … So, we need to announce the definite right to full secession of those twelve republics – urgently and firmly. And should some of them hesitate whether they ought to secede, we must with the same resolve announce OUR secession from them.

We were in opposition but we were constructive. I myself view the collapse of the Soviet Union as a tragedy for Kazakhstan … Gorbachev wanted to draft a more equal Union Treaty. But then Yeltsin wanted to remove Gorbachev. In order to achieve that, he exploded the whole Union. We say that it is not worth burning the whole fur coat to kill one flea. But that is exactly what Yeltsin did.

Sovereignty was a useful word for everybody … It could make the most cautious politicians sound radical, which was useful for the Communists, in order to please the people; and it made the radical politicians sound moderate, which was useful for the implicitly pro-independence movements, who did not yet want to be out in the open. Nobody, after all, could seriously quarrel with the idea of sovereignty.