Pundit: Russia would be ‘wrong’ partner for Kazakh nuclear power project

Togzhan Kassenova, author of “Atomic Steppe. How Kazakhstan gave up the bomb”, says Kazakhstan is yet to fully process and heal from the horrible legacy of the Soviet nuclear weapons’ tests on its soil, but it must not get stuck in the role of a victim.

In an interview with Exclusive.kz, Kassenova also says that if Kazakhstan goes ahead with building a nuclear power station Russia must be ruled out as a potential partner.

Kassenova said that Russia’s war on Ukraine had accelerated the process of decolonisation and rethinking Kazakhstan’s Soviet past, with the country’s use as a testing ground for nuclear experiments being one of the most tragic parts of it.

“However, in reassessing our Soviet past, we must not get stuck in the role of a victim,” she said.

“The reassessment of the Soviet past is an important process, but it won’t be complete if we do not learn to take responsibility for our present. I think Kazakhstan is very much in a position to support its citizens who suffered as a result of Soviet nuclear tests.”

She said that the current law on social protection for such citizens was “very outdated”.

However, the fact that Kazakhstan recently joined a new agreement between the member countries of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty gives her “careful optimism”.

“In this new agreement, the sixth and seventh articles are on assisting victims of nuclear tests and use of nuclear weapons, and rehabilitating territories affected by such actions. Kazakhstan, along with Kiribati (whose population has suffered from American nuclear tests) were the main advocates of these two articles,” she said.  

“I also hope that the growing role of Kazakh civil society will also help bring to the fore the issue of insufficient aid to the victims of Soviet nuclear tests.”

Speaking about the ongoing debate over whether Kazakhstan should build a nuclear power station, Kassenova said that if the government decided to go ahead with it, Russia should be ruled out as a potential partner.

“I am against Russia building a nuclear power station in Kazakhstan. I think it would be a serious mistake, particularly in the current circumstances.

“Russian troops are still on the grounds of another sovereign country’s nuclear facility – the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. They are jeopardising the Ukrainian nuclear facility by the very fact of being stationed there.

“Earlier Russian troops entered the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power station. By doing all that, Russia showed disregard for international nuclear safety agreements.

“Against the backdrop of the events of the past two years, signing a contract with Russia could have a negative impact on Kazakhstan’s image and reputation.   

“From a practical point of view, we have to remember that Rosatom’s daughter companies are already under international sanctions, and cooperation with Russia, at a time when it is facing sanctions, might put Kazakhstan in a vulnerable position.”

Kassenova’s book, published in 2022 by Stanford University Press, explains how after the Soviet collapse Kazakhstan found itself in possession of the world’s fourth largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and how it decided to give it up. It also gives an account of the terrifying consequences of the Soviet nuclear weapons tests at the Kazakh Semipalatinsk testing ground.

Dr. Kassenova is a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research, SUNY-Albany and a nonresident fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

By Alia Boranbayeva

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