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Russia's Putin cancels planned visit to Astana - Kazakh source


    ASTANA (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled a visit to Moscow's close ally Kazakhstan planned for this week, possibly due to illness, a Kazakh government official said on Wednesday.

    "The visit has been cancelled. It looks like he (Putin) has fallen ill," the official told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

    The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, had also been expected to join Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for talks in the Kazakh capital Astana on Friday. It was not clear whether Lukashenko would still make the trip.

    A Kremlin spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment, and a spokesman for Lukashenko declined to comment.

    (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Thomas Grove)