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Russia’s energy company Gazprom has provided the Kyrgyz government with more than $400 million for a regional gasification program. As a result, the share of settlements supplied with natural gas has risen to 42 percent. President Vladimir Putin announced this during his visit to the Central Asian republic, according to the Kremlin press service.
Putin assured his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sadyr Japarov, that this work will continue, as will Gazprom’s deliveries of natural gas to the country.
Russia’s energy minister, Sergey Tsivilev, who took part in the high-level talks, elaborated on the topic, stressing that the joint project to supply gas to Kyrgyzstan’s cities and towns is being carried out strictly according to the plans approved by both governments.
“There has been no disruption to these plans to date. We are confident that we will fully complete this work,” he said.
Tsivilev also noted that Russia supplies Kyrgyz consumers with electricity. Russian companies, he said, are actively involved in the design and modernization of hydropower plants and are planning to build a major solar power plant and a new, modern combined heat and power station in the country.
According to the minister, 14 hydropower and renewable-energy facilities worth more than $175 million are currently under construction with financing from the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund.
In the nuclear sector, Russia is implementing a large-scale program to remediate former uranium-mining sites. The two sides are also exploring the possibility of building Kyrgyzstan’s first nuclear power plant using Russian small modular reactor technology, which Tsivilev says meets the highest safety and environmental standards.
The Russian Energy Ministry added that the talks in Bishkek, attended by Putin and Japarov, resulted in the signing of several intergovernmental and interagency agreements aimed at expanding practical cooperation between the two countries.
