Putin to discuss energy ties on visit to Kazakhstan, Kremlin says

Astana (Reuters): Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss energy ties on a visit to Kazakhstan this week, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, a trip that comes amid trade tensions with the Central Asian nation, which exports most of its oil through Russia.

Kazakhstan, which has tried to distance itself from Moscow's war in Ukraine, remains highly dependent on Russia for exporting oil to Western markets and for imports of food, electricity and other products.

"Our countries are ... constructively cooperating in the oil and gas sector," Putin wrote in an article "Russia – Kazakhstan: a union demanded by life and looking to the future" for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper and published on the Kremlin's website late on Tuesday.

Putin's article came after Kazakhstan's energy minister said on Monday his country could sharply increase its crude oil exports out of Turkey's port of Ceyhan, a move that would reduce the share of flows it currently sends via Russia.

Underscoring that more than 80% of Kazakhstan's oil is exported to foreign markets via Russia, Putin said he and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev always focused on "a specific result" in their talks.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists on Tuesday that Putin and Tokayev would sign a protocol on extending an agreement on oil supplies to Kazakhstan. He provided no further details.

NUCLEAR PLANT

Putin also said in his article that Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom - already involved in some projects in Kazakhstan - was "ready for new large-scale projects".

In October, Kazakhstan, a nation of 20 million, voted in favour of constructing its first nuclear power plant, under a Tokayev-backed plan that faced public criticism and concerns that Russia would be involved in the project.

Putin's visit also comes amid agricultural trade tensions following a Russian ban on imports of grain, fruit and other farm products from Kazakhstan in October. Moscow imposed the ban after Kazakhstan barred Russian wheat imports in August.

While Tokayev has made a number of gestures welcomed by Moscow such as initiating the creation of an international body to support the Russian language across the former Soviet space, his government has also sought to maintain friendly ties with the West.

Last month, Astana said it had no plans to join BRICS, the bloc of emerging economies that Putin hopes to build as a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.

Kazakhstan has also pledged to abide by Western sanctions on Russia, although some Kazakh companies have been caught skirting them.

Security was tight in Astana ahead of Putin's scheduled arrival on Wednesday, with whole blocks of the city cordoned off and military helicopters and fighter jets patrolling the sky.