Russia first reduced and then stopped the transportation of Kazakh oil through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) until the end of June. According to Kommersant, citing sources, this is due to the fact that 50 mines from the Second World War were found in the waters of the port of Novorossiysk.

Demining work is scheduled for June 20. Now the water area is completely closed for the movement of ships. Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Bolat Akchulakov said that the suspension of shipments will not affect the volume of transportation of Kazakh oil. According to him, these are planned works:

“I said earlier that they are going to carry out seabed clean-up operations [at CPC] before carrying out seabed operations. There is ammunition from the Second World War, they are there in sufficient quantities, unfortunately.”

The shipment was suspended against the backdrop of statements by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. There, sitting next to Vladimir Putin, he called the "DPR" and "LPR" "quasi-states" and said that Kazakhstan would not recognize them - just like Taiwan, Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In addition, he criticized propagandist Tigran Keosayan, husband of SPIEF host Margarita Simonyan, for making negative remarks about Kazakhstan. In April, he accused Kazakhstan of "cunning" and threatened him with the fate of Ukraine for refusing to hold a parade on May 9.

Tokayev also refused the Order of Alexander Nevsky, which Russia wanted to award him. This information was confirmed by Tokaev's press secretary Ruslan Zheldibay, but it was denied by the Kremlin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.