{"id":830095,"date":"2026-03-16T18:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/830095\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T18:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:33:26","slug":"russia-is-losing-its-grip-on-central-asias-power-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/830095\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Is Losing Its Grip on Central Asia\u2019s Power Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy <a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/contributors\/Eurasianet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eurasianet <\/a> &#8211; Mar 16, 2026, 1:00 PM CDT<\/p>\n<ul>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>Russian firms are losing major energy contracts in Central Asia because financing plans are falling apart.<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>Kazakhstan has shifted key power projects from Russian companies to cheaper Chinese contractors.<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li>Uzbekistan is signaling doubts about Rosatom by exploring French involvement in its nuclear program.<\/li>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/ul>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-16_u9clhnqvxr.jpg\" class=\"singleArticle__articleImage\" alt=\"The sun setting behind powerlines.\" title=\"The sun setting behind powerlines.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>An important revenue stream in Central Asia for Russia appears in danger of slowing to a trickle.<\/p>\n<p>The international power sector has long been lucrative for Russia, via projects developed by Rosatom, the state-controlled atomic energy entity, and other Kremlin-connected companies. But the ability of Russia and its corporate proxies to finance deals appears to be encountering increasing difficulty. Accordingly, business is slipping.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence of financing difficulties for Russian companies is mounting across Central Asia. For example, Kazakhstan has opted to engage <a href=\"https:\/\/vlast.kz\/amp\/novosti\/68658-postavsikom-oborudovania-na-tretij-energoblok-ekibastuzskoj-gres-2-stanet-kitajskaa-kompania.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a Chinese company<\/a>, Harbin Electric International, to complete the next phase of construction at the Ekibastuz GRES-2 power station. Russian firms were originally tapped to do the job, but after a <a href=\"https:\/\/vlast.kz\/amp\/novosti\/68658-postavsikom-oborudovania-na-tretij-energoblok-ekibastuzskoj-gres-2-stanet-kitajskaa-kompania.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">financing plan by the Kremlin fell through<\/a>, Kazakh officials moved on. To add to Russia\u2019s embarrassment, Harbin Electric has agreed to complete the project at less than two-thirds the cost of the original Russian estimate, saving the Kazakh government almost $500 million.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Roughnecks-Riches-Start-Up-American-Fracking\/dp\/B0FCDBHGSW\" class=\"charts_banner_clicked charts_banner_add_view\" data-banner_id=\"38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"not_lightbox\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/book.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/eurasianet.org\/rosatom-may-whiff-on-kazakh-nuclear-project-due-to-financing-yips\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">financing woes<\/a> resulted in a Russian state-controlled entity, Inter RAO, losing contracts to build three power plants in the Kazakh cities of Kokshetau, Semey, and Oskemen. All three contracts were subsequently given to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DU0gV9EEUqb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chinese firms<\/a>, according to Kazakh officials.<\/p>\n<p>In Uzbekistan, officials seem to be growing nervous about Rosatom\u2019s capabilities to build <a href=\"https:\/\/eurasianet.org\/rosatom-appears-to-hit-speed-bump-in-uzbekistan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nuclear reactors<\/a> in the country. Uzbek authorities have engaged <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/uzatom_info\/3485\" rel=\"nofollow\">France\u2019s nuclear company Framatome<\/a> to explore the firm\u2019s potential participation in nuclear plant construction. The discussions focused on \u201cthe introduction of modern automated technological process management systems (ASUTP) at nuclear power plants,\u201d the Uzbek energy agency, Uzatom, said in a March 9 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/uzatom_info\/3485\" rel=\"nofollow\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/eurasianet.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Eurasianet<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>More Top Reads From Oilprice.com<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/Latest-Energy-News\/World-News\/Trump-EPA-Set-to-Scrap-Landmark-Emissions-Policy.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload The Free Oilprice App Today<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/in\/app\/oilprice\/id1389772617?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Download Oilprice.com on Apple\" style=\"height: 50px;\" width=\"169\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/d1o9e4un86hhpc.cloudfront.net\/a\/img\/cl\/app\/appstoredownload.svg\" class=\"lozad\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=oilprice.android.app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Download Oilprice.com on Android\" style=\"height: 50px;\" width=\"169\" height=\"50\" class=\"lozad\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/androidbutton.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Back to homepage<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t    <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Eurasianet &#8211; Mar 16, 2026, 1:00 PM CDT &#13; Russian firms are losing major energy contracts in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[33722,1395,18192,238325,13561,12617,73120,72587,332,20919],"class_list":["post-830095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-central-asia","tag-china","tag-financing","tag-inter-rao","tag-kazakhstan","tag-nuclear-energy","tag-power-sector","tag-rosatom","tag-russia","tag-uzbekistan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116240293028796642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}