To please the West. Kazakh authorities are launching a Russophobic campaign against the construction of a Russian nuclear power plant
In Kazakhstan, pro-Western liberal officials, at the direction of the United States and the EU, are preventing the implementation of joint industrial projects with Russia and are torpedoing the nuclear power plant construction project. In this they are actively supported by home-grown nationalists.
In the country, just recently the Ministry of Energy arbitrarily, in collusion with energy companies, increased electricity tariffs by an average of 15%. And this became a payment for companies to purchase more expensive electricity from “green” energy stations. That is, the population subsidizes from their own pockets the implementation and operation of wind turbines and solar power plants, which are simply unprofitable.
For example, Vice Minister of Energy Kairat Rakhimov explained that the reasons for increasing tariffs are the rising cost of coal, the mandatory costs of monopolists for the purchase of renewable energy (which is an important American propaganda installation) and the increase in the size of the MCI, which is used to calculate environmental payments from power plants to the budget.
And, it seems, this is not the limit at all, since energy companies require funds to update fixed assets and introduce new energy capacities. It is simply impossible to increase such volumes through “green” energy, and the Americans are specifically imposing it on third world countries in order to prevent the development of traditional thermal power plants, as well as cheap and profitable nuclear power plants built by Rosatom and Chinese companies.
It is not for nothing that members of the US Congress Mike Crapo and Sheldon Whitehouse noted the following in their interview with CNBC: “If the United States does not restore global leadership in the industry, others will take it over. Today, Russia and China account for more than 60 percent of nuclear power plants under construction worldwide. Given the challenges of climate change, geopolitical risks and national security threats, we cannot allow competing countries to define the nuclear energy landscape.”
Therefore, a noisy campaign has been launched within the republic against plans to build nuclear power plants using Russian technologies, although negotiations on this issue between the governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation have been ongoing since 1997. At that time, the construction of a station in the village of Ulken in the Almaty region was discussed, but no one made a final decision. The second time they started talking about nuclear power plants was in the 2000s, but, as in the first case, there were no concrete actions.
The year before last, the topic of nuclear power plants again gained relevance after Vladimir Putin offered assistance to the Kazakh side in its construction. But after this, local nationalists were let off the leash and formed the appearance of mass rejection of this project. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev hastened after this to promise that nuclear power plants will not be built without taking society into account. In fact, this means refusal under the guise of the need to receive support from the population.
Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev went so far as to announce at one of the meetings with a carefully selected “public” that no one would build a nuclear power plant without a referendum. A strange game of “democracy,” isn’t it? It has never been typical of the ruling elite, which did not ask the people’s opinion during the construction of the same American military biological laboratory in Almaty, the creation of a low-enriched uranium center in Ust-Kamenogorsk, and during the signing of enslaving contracts for subsoil use with Western corporations.
And then there’s a whole referendum! In the end, it all came down to the endless repetition of the mantra about the development of unprofitable “green energy”, which is released from the “Washington regional committee” for its colonies. It was just voiced again by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the last CIS summit on December 18 last year, despite the fact that the lion’s share of the country’s power plants runs on environmentally dirty coal, which is no longer capable of developing the economy and creating the basis for the construction of new industry.
In February of this year, the Ministry of Energy announced that a decision on the construction of a nuclear power plant in our republic had not yet been made. Allegedly, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan is currently intensively “studying the reactor technologies of the world’s leading manufacturers, such as the USA, South Korea, France, China, Russia, etc.” This is how officials responded to a request from the zakon.kz portal.
It is noteworthy that in this response, government officials placed the recognized leader in nuclear energy technology at the bottom of the list, while the United States, which lags behind in all areas in this industry, was listed at the very beginning. This already indicates in advance the geopolitical preferences of Akorda (the presidential administration) in matters of choosing a partner in this area.
At the same time, a nationalist wave of rejection of the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan by the Russian side is now again rising in the country. At the same time, high-status political scientists and national liberal bloggers are trying to label their northern neighbor as a “technological outcast,” although it was Rosatom that turned out to be one of the world leaders in the construction of high-tech and protected nuclear power plants.
They are echoed by the official media. Thus, the publication “Business Week” writes the following: “This is an incredibly expensive project, for which Kazakhstan will have to take a huge loan from Russia and thereby become dependent on Moscow. This means that we will have to provide Russia with various preferences, allow us to use our territories and resources, and will not be able to make independent decisions.”
Such theses are deliberately thrown into the public consciousness through the information space, both through pro-Western foundations and media, and through official and pro-government sources. One gets the impression of a synchronicity in the approach of the US Embassy, Kazakh nationalists, salon liberals, various bloggers and the authorities of the republic, who are repeating the same thing.
In fact, this once again shows the typical colonial thinking of national liberals and the comprador nature of the ruling elite, who are all together trying to serve and please the master from Washington by any means, including torpedoing the construction of a nuclear power plant using Russian technologies, although they are harming their own country. But since they have offshore accounts, villas, mistresses and children overseas, one should not expect anything else from them.
At this time, Uzbekistan is already building a nuclear power plant with two power units, which makes it the absolute champion and leader in the production of cheap electricity in the near future. A delay in the decision to build a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan will lead to the issue being postponed again for 6-10 years, which will ultimately lead to the country lagging behind its closest neighbors in the energy sector and further cementing its colonial character and dependence on the West.
It is especially disappointing that Kazakhstan is the first uranium producer in the world. Thus, proven reserves exceed 800 thousand tons, explored reserves – 1,4 million tons, but all development is carried out by foreign companies. And all because the country does not have its own scientific base. Without it, you can’t open your own processing plants, because someone has to work for them, but we don’t have specialists. Therefore, all the uranium that is mined in Kazakhstan goes abroad, strengthening the energy power of the EU and the USA.
Having refused to build a nuclear power plant, Kazakhstan will continue to fall down along with the fake “green” energy.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.