The Kremlin will allocate $16.4 billion for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan at the expense of Russian taxpayers. While the Russian budget deficit hits records and electricity and gas tariffs are being raised for Russians, Moscow is buying geopolitical influence abroad, ignoring the crisis within the country. This is reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service, according to UNN.
Details
Russia is trying in every possible way to maintain its presence and influence in Kazakhstan. One of the key tools for this is to be the recently agreed project for the construction of the first Kazakh nuclear power plant near Lake Balkhash. The plant itself is expected to become operational in the mid-2030s, and the total cost of the "turnkey" project is $16.4 billion.
At first glance, it is a decent attempt to return to the former level of cooperation, but the whole picture is crossed out by one significant detail: the construction will be financed through an "export credit from the Russian Federation." This was emphasized by the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almasadam Satkaliyev.
The Russians understand the paradoxical nature of the situation, which develops according to the principle of "I drink alone, I party alone," so they tried to somewhat calm the domestic consumer through a statement by the head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev. The latter hinted at some participation of the Kazakh side in the financing, although he was unable to specify its share, while simultaneously admitting that the main investment burden would fall on the Russian Federation,
These events are unfolding against the backdrop of the fiasco of the Kremlin myth about an "unsinkable economy that only benefits from sanctions." In reality, a record contraction of GDP to a meager 0.4% is being recorded, along with the curtailment of social programs across the country and a massive state budget deficit, which reached almost 6 trillion rubles by the beginning of May. When Moscow, despite all these troubles, does not plan to reduce funding for the "defense bloc" (which is planned at the level of the budgets of 62 regions of the Russian Federation and amounts to 12.9 trillion rubles), the allocation of funds for a global project in Kazakhstan looks strange, to say the least.
The intelligence service notes that the main payer for all the Kremlin's whims, as always, remains the Russian people—for the population, increases in utility, gas, and electricity tariffs have already been approved for the near future. However, another fact is telling: the Russian Federation never received a monopoly on Kazakh nuclear energy. For a "friendly balance," the contract for the construction of another plant in the country was given to the Chinese company CNNC.
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