Moscow launched a five-day operation to "force Georgia to accept peace" after Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia on August 8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which split from Georgia in the early 1990s. A number of Russian peacekeepers and a reported 1,600 South Ossetian residents lost their lives during the Georgian attack.
"Our relations with Russia are excellent ... and Russia is our strategic partner," Tazhin said at a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is on a visit to the Central Asian republic.
At the same time, the Kazakh foreign minister said that Kazakhstan's relations with Washington were "stable in nature and strategic."
After the brief war with Georgia, Russia subsequently recognized South Ossetia along with another separatist region, Abkhazia, as independent states, and Tbilisi severed diplomatic ties with Moscow.
