President Nazarbayev delivered a speech in front of the Russian State Duma today, reports Gazeta.kz. His speech reminded the MPs that when the Duma was founded 100 years ago, there were also 12 Kazakhs among the parliamentarians, so the anniversary is a reason for both countries to celebrate.

Apart from the ceremonial part of his visit, Nazarbayev would of course not leave out an opportunity to promote the well-being of his national economy. So the announcement that CPC (Caspian Pipeline Consortium) will increase the Tenghiz-Novorossiysk pipeline’s capacity by more than 100% only comes as a small surprise.

Together with the BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) plug, a newly-finished pipeline project connecting Xinjiang with Kazakh oilfields plus a number of other options under consideration, Kazakhstan might actually succeed in achieving the ambitious export targets set out earlier this year, i.e. to export 3.6 barrels of oil per diem.

Russian President Putin also brought up the issue of co-operation in the nuclear energy domain. Kazakhstan, striving to be the main uranium producer within the next decade, seems keen to diversify its energy production away from its hydrocarbon resources and aims to build its first nuclear power plant by 2015.