President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. File photoASTANA, Oct 13Presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Sadyr Japarov and Emomali Rahmon did not shake hands before a trilateral meeting with the head of the Russian state Vladimir Putin, RIA Novosti correspondent reports. Zhaparov came as Putin, the leaders briefly talked «on their feet». Then Rahmon came in, shook hands with Putin and sat down in his seat, the correspondent reports. After large-scale clashes on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border in mid-September, during which the parties accused each other of shelling, relations between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan escalated. Fierce fighting between the military of the two countries lasted all day along almost the entire perimeter of the border. A ceasefire was achieved only by nightfall. On the morning of September 17, intermittent clashes resumed. The parties accused each other of violating the ceasefire agreement. The shooting stopped only towards evening. The Kyrgyz side reported 63 dead and 198 injured of its citizens as a result of clashes. Tajikistan announced 50 dead and 200 injured. On September 25, representatives of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan signed a protocol on resolving the situation, in which they agreed to stop conflicts on the border and speed up the process of delimitation and demarcation of the state border. Also, according to the document, the parties agreed to mothball four border points on each side in the places where conflicts most often occurred. Later, Kyrgyzstan canceled joint exercises with the CSTO that were supposed to take place on its territory, and also announced that it would not participate 
Putin to hold a press conference in Astana
