When can a deal involving Russia be considered as done? When it comes to Russia\u2019s agreement to build Kazakhstan\u2019s first nuclear power plant, it is hard to determine.<\/p>\n
Kazakh officials\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0almost a year ago that Russia\u2019s nuclear energy entity, Rosatom, would build Kazakhstan\u2019s first nuclear plant on the shores of Lake Balkhash. Yet on May 28, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, on a state visit to the Central Asian country, signed\u00a0an\u00a0agreement<\/a>\u00a0covering the \u201cbasic principles and conditions of cooperation\u201d concerning the nuclear power project.<\/p>\n Despite the announcements and agreements, the main question surrounding the power plant\u2019s actual construction still lacks a clear answer: where is the money to build it coming from?<\/p>\n An Interfax news agency\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0put the price tag of the Lake Balkhash plant at $16.4 billion, including the building of necessary infrastructure in the surrounding area. According to the May 28 agreement, the Russian state will extend credit to cover most of the project\u2019s expense. But financing details have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n Interfax quoted Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev as saying Russian credit will account for “most of the volume of investment \u2026 but not for all; part will remain with the Kazakh side.” Earlier, unconfirmed estimates put the Russian share of construction at about 80-85 percent.<\/p>\n The lack of specifics raises questions about the Kremlin\u2019s ability to deliver on its financing promises. The burden of maintaining the country\u2019s war effort in Ukraine is quickly sapping Russia\u2019s financial resilience. The Russian government recently\u00a0slashed<\/a>\u00a0its economic growth forecast for 2026 to a meager 0.4 percent, down from 1.3 percent. The Kremlin\u2019s cash reserves are rapidly dwindling and the government this year\u00a0has\u00a0increasingly\u00a0turned<\/a>\u00a0to dumping gold on international markets to raise cash.<\/p>\n During a joint news conference with Putin, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev glossed over questions about financing, instead emphasizing that the Lake Balkhash power plant \u201cwill become a locomotive for scientific, educational and technological cooperation, and will ensure the development of new related sectors of the energy sector and the industry as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps tacitly recognizing that Russia in a weakened state is potentially more apt to lash out in other directions, Tokayev seemed to make an extra effort to solicit Putin\u2019s favor, lavishing fawning praise on the Kremlin leader. At one point, Tokayev turned to Putin and said: \u201cAs an outstanding statesman, a politician of a global scale, you consistently pursue a policy aimed at strengthening Russia’s status as a great power.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou are leading the country in the most difficult period of the total restructuring of the modern world order, fulfilling with honor and dignity a mission that is of fateful importance for the Russian people and the Russian state,\u201d Tokayev added.<\/p>\n Tokayev has good reason to go out of his way to keep Kazakhstan on Putin\u2019s good side. As Tokayev himself noted, the two countries share \u201cthe longest border in the world,\u201d a fact that gives Russia ample opportunity to disrupt Kazakhstan\u2019s social and economic conditions, if Astana ever falls out of favor with Moscow.<\/p>\n Given the long border, \u201ceternal friendship, stable good-neighborliness, mutual trust are not propaganda slogans, but the very essence of the peaceful existence of our peoples,\u201d Tokayev stated.<\/p>\n By Eurasianet<\/a><\/p>\n More Top Reads From Oilprice.com<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When can a deal involving Russia be considered as done? When it comes to Russia\u2019s agreement to build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2603,823,12269,641,12268,557,182,258,5,7640],"class_list":["post-25274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-central-asia","tag-energy-security","tag-financing","tag-kazakhstan","tag-lake-balkhash","tag-nuclear-power","tag-putin","tag-rosatom","tag-russia","tag-tokayev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}