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Putin starts 2-day visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday

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Kazakhstan, Russia share close economic, security ties

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Kazakhstan reliant on Moscow for exporting oil to West

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Astana has also sought good ties with West

(Adds details, dateline)

By Lidia Kelly and Tamara Vaal

ASTANA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir

Putin will discuss energy ties on a visit to Kazakhstan this

week, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, a trip that comes amid trade

tensions with the Central Asian nation, which exports most of

its oil through Russia.

Kazakhstan, which has tried to distance itself from Moscow's

war in Ukraine, remains highly dependent on Russia for exporting

oil to Western markets and for imports of food, electricity and

other products.

"Our countries are ... constructively cooperating in the oil

and gas sector," Putin wrote in an article "Russia - Kazakhstan:

a union demanded by life and looking to the future" for the

Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper and published on the Kremlin's

website late on Tuesday.

Putin's article came after Kazakhstan's energy minister said

on Monday his country could sharply increase its crude oil

exports out of Turkey's port of Ceyhan, a move that would reduce

the share of flows it currently sends via Russia.

Underscoring that more than 80% of Kazakhstan's oil is

exported to foreign markets via Russia, Putin said he and

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev always focused on "a specific

result" in their talks.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists on

Tuesday that Putin and Tokayev would sign a protocol on

extending an agreement on oil supplies to Kazakhstan. He

provided no further details.

NUCLEAR PLANT

Putin also said in his article that Russia's state nuclear

corporation Rosatom - already involved in some projects in

Kazakhstan - was "ready for new large-scale projects".

In October, Kazakhstan, a nation of 20 million, voted in

favour of constructing its first nuclear power plant, under a

Tokayev-backed plan that faced public criticism and concerns

that Russia would be involved in the project.

Putin's visit also comes amid agricultural trade tensions

following a Russian ban on imports of grain, fruit and other

farm products from Kazakhstan in October. Moscow imposed the ban

after Kazakhstan barred Russian wheat imports in August.

While Tokayev has made a number of gestures welcomed by

Moscow such as initiating the creation of an international body

to support the Russian language across the former Soviet space,

his government has also sought to maintain friendly ties with

the West.

Last month, Astana said it had no plans to join BRICS,

the bloc of emerging economies which Putin hopes to build as a

powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.

Kazakhstan has also pledged to abide by Western sanctions on

Russia, although some Kazakh companies have been caught skirting

them.

Security was tight in Astana ahead of Putin's scheduled

arrival on Wednesday, with whole blocks of the city cordoned off

and military helicopters and fighter jets patrolling the sky.

(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Sonali Paul

and Gareth Jones)