Kazakhstan to impose an environment penalty on Russia

Kazakhstan plans to impose a penalty on Russia for the ash [brought back to Kazakhstan for storing] from the Troitsk hydropower plant based in Russia, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing the country’s Environment Minister Nurlan Kapparov as saying June 11. “In the Soviet era Russia and Kazakhstan were parts of a single country and it didn’t matter whether the ash was stored in Kazakhstan or Russia. Today we are two different nations and it’s no longer natural for Kazakhstan to store the ash coming from Russia. Russia purchases Kazakh coal for its Troitsk hydropower plant, but the ash is brought back to Kazakhstan. Back in 2007 the Kazakh Government decided to allow Russia to store the ash in the Kazakh territory for 5 years so that they would come with a plan to store it later on in their own territory. Unfortunately, nothing was done for the 5 years. This year Russia has requested Kazakhstan to allow them to store the ash before 2015 or 2018, but Kazakhstan refused. There are heated debates over the related issues and a penalty may be eventually imposed. The situation around the Troitsk hydropower plant is rather serious. The issue is very pressing at the moment”, the Minister said when speaking before the country’s Majilis (lower chamber).