The document was signed during Vladimir Putin's visit on the occasion of the EAUG summit [Euroazjatycka Unia Gospodarcza]. The nuclear power plant is to be built in the town of Ułken on Lake Balkhash in southern Kazakhstan. The Russian company Rosatom will be mainly responsible for its construction. According to the project, two reactors with a total capacity of approximately 2.4 GW are to be built. The investment cost is estimated at approximately USD 15 billion, of which approximately 85 percent is to be financed with a Russian loan.
Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to build a nuclear power plant
Kazakhstan, which is the world's largest uranium producer, has been considering a return to nuclear energy for years. The country has not produced nuclear energy since the closure in 1999 of the Aktau reactor on the Caspian Sea, built during the Soviet era. At the end of 2024, a referendum was held in Kazakhstan, in which the majority of citizens supported the construction of nuclear power plants in the country.
In 2025, Kazakhstan chose Rosatom as the leader of the consortium building the first nuclear power plant. But that's not the end. The Kazakh authorities have already announced the construction of a second nuclear power plant, the main partner of which is to be the Chinese company CNNC. Rosatom declared its interest in participating in this project as well.
Putin's two-day visit to Kazakhstan is related to the 5th Eurasian Economic Forum taking place on Thursday and Friday in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, and the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union countries. This organization brings together Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia.
The summit is attended by the president of Kazakhstan Kasym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov, as well as the leaders of Russia Vladimir Putin and Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Armenia is represented only by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had previously announced that he would not attend the meeting in Astana due to the election campaign in the country.
Pashinyan's absence is part of Armenia's increasingly cold relations with Russia and post-Soviet structures. Yerevan has been strengthening cooperation with the European Union for months, and in May it hosted the European Political Community summit and the first EU-Armenia summit. The Russian authorities openly signal concern about Armenia's pro-European course. The Kremlin emphasizes that membership in the EU and EAUG is difficult to reconcile, and Russian officials have warned Yerevan of the consequences of a possible further separation from the organization.
