UPDATE: Kyrgyzstan may quit hydropower cascade deal with Russia

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MOSCOW, Dec 24 (PRIME) -- Kyrgyzstan may leave U.S. $425 million worth of agreements on the Verkhne-Narynsky hydropower cascade and the Kambaratinskaya GES-1 hydropower plant with Russia and attract new investors to the projects as they cannot be implemented due to economic reasons, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said Thursday in a news conference.

“We have signed three agreements with Russia. The first one, with Gazprom, is successful, I think. And the other two are for construction of the Verkhne-Narynsky hydropower cascade and the Kambaratinskaya-1 hydropower plant. We have met several times with Russian authorities on this issue. It is obvious that under the current conditions, the Russian side is unable to implement (the projects) due to objective reasons,” he said.

“There was one situation back then (when agreements were signed). Now the situation is different. So, Kyrgyzstan has to leave these agreements and look for other investors. We have no right to stop the projects. Unfortunately, our Russian friends are unable to implement these projects. We will wait for some time, but we have to make a comprehensive solution.”

“The Russian president understood me pretty well, he is also a realist…If the Russian side cannot do that, we have to find other investors. There is no politics here.”

The Verkhne-Narynsky hydropower cascade has a capacity of at least 191 megawatts and the average production capacity of 1.055 billion kilowatt-hours a year.

But Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that the two countries are continuing discussion of the projects and it is too early to say that any decision has been made despite some difficulties.

The projects were discussed in detail at Putin’s Tuesday meeting with Atambayev. “There are really some difficulties connected to commercial and circumstantial questions. Different options are studied. But the discussion is going on. It is too early to speak about any decisions on the matter,” Peskov said.

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