Head of Rosatom seeks meeting with President Tokayev to discuss 'perspectives for bilateral cooperation'

An official letter was sent on Oct. 11, according to a document in open sources / Collage by Kursiv.media, photo editor: Dastan Shanay

The head of the Russian state corporation Rosatom, Alexander Likhachev, is seeking a meeting with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov. A formal request for the meeting was shared on the Telegram channel «Oil and Gas of Kazakhstan. Facts and Comments,» run by journalist Oleg Chervinsky. Kursiv.media reached out to Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry and the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan for confirmation.

According to the publicly available letter, the Russian embassy asked Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to «facilitate a meeting between the president of Rosatom and the prime minister by the end of November 2024, to discuss perspectives for cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.»

«The Russian side would appreciate it if the Kazakhstani side could propose a date for a potential meeting based on the schedules of Kazakhstan’s top officials,» the letter states. The Russian side tentatively suggested meeting on either Oct. 28 or Nov. 14.

Kursiv.media has requested confirmation from the MFA and the Russian embassy regarding the authenticity of the document, but no response had been received at the time of publication.

On Oct. 6, Kazakhstan held a nationwide referendum on the construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the Almaty region. President Tokayev stated that if the public supported the initiative, the project would need to be carried out by an international consortium.

According to the Central Election Commission, 71.12% of Kazakhstani voters supported the construction of an NPP. The Ministry of National Economy later clarified that the government would not allocate funding for the NPP’s construction, as it intends for the project to be financed through project funding. The financial backing for the project is expected to come from a consortium of international institutions, with Kazakhstan repaying the debt from the revenue generated by the NPP’s electricity sales, rather than from the state budget.