Donald Trump’s breezy calls to controversial foreign leaders leave diplomats aghast

Trump’s call with President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan raised similar questions.

Nazarbayev has ruled his country with an iron hand since 1989, first as head of the Communist Party and later as president, after Kazakhstan won its independence from the Soviet Union.

In April 2015, he won a fifth term, winning 97.7 percent of the vote and raising suspicions of fraud. “I apologize if these numbers are unacceptable for the super-democratic countries, but there was nothing I could do,” he said after the results were announced.

The Kazakh government, in its account of Trump’s conversation, said he had lavished praise on the president for his leadership of the country over the last 25 years.

“D. Trump stressed that under the leadership of Nursultan Nazarbayev our country over the years of independence had achieved fantastic success that can be called a ‘miracle,'” it said.