AFP, Bishkek :
Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev signed a parliamentary resolution on Thursday to refuse $100 million in aid from oil-rich neighbour Kazakhstan amid an escalating spat between the two Central Asian countries.
Both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are close to Russia and are members of a Moscow-led trade bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union, which the Kremlin has styled as an alternative to the European Union.
But Kyrgyzstan reacted furiously when ageing Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev appeared to endorse a popular opposition candidate rather than Atambayev’s chosen successor ahead of a bitterly contested vote that took place in October.
The two countries have traded accusations ever since, with Kazakhstan imposing growing restrictions on goods imported from Kyrgyzstan which the resource-poor country says run counter to the terms of the EEU trade bloc.
Kyrgyzstan’s presidential website published the news that Atambayev had signed off on the parliamentary resolution on Thursday, deepening a rift in which Russia has yet to intervene.
On Wednesday Atambayev accused leaders of other EEU member states of “complete indifference” to Kazakhstan’s “blockade” of Kyrgyz goods that has seen tailbacks of several kilometres at points along their shared border.
The restrictions at the border, which Kazakhstan says are part of an operation to prevent contraband from Kyrgyzstan entering the country, came after Atambayev portrayed Kazakhstan as a corrupt autocracy in a fiery October speech.
The tirade found a receptive audience among social media users in Kazakhstan where real incomes have collapsed along with global prices for oil, posing a challenge to 77-year-old Nazarbayev’s rule of three decades.
Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev signed a parliamentary resolution on Thursday to refuse $100 million in aid from oil-rich neighbour Kazakhstan amid an escalating spat between the two Central Asian countries.
Both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are close to Russia and are members of a Moscow-led trade bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union, which the Kremlin has styled as an alternative to the European Union.
But Kyrgyzstan reacted furiously when ageing Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev appeared to endorse a popular opposition candidate rather than Atambayev’s chosen successor ahead of a bitterly contested vote that took place in October.
The two countries have traded accusations ever since, with Kazakhstan imposing growing restrictions on goods imported from Kyrgyzstan which the resource-poor country says run counter to the terms of the EEU trade bloc.
Kyrgyzstan’s presidential website published the news that Atambayev had signed off on the parliamentary resolution on Thursday, deepening a rift in which Russia has yet to intervene.
On Wednesday Atambayev accused leaders of other EEU member states of “complete indifference” to Kazakhstan’s “blockade” of Kyrgyz goods that has seen tailbacks of several kilometres at points along their shared border.
The restrictions at the border, which Kazakhstan says are part of an operation to prevent contraband from Kyrgyzstan entering the country, came after Atambayev portrayed Kazakhstan as a corrupt autocracy in a fiery October speech.
The tirade found a receptive audience among social media users in Kazakhstan where real incomes have collapsed along with global prices for oil, posing a challenge to 77-year-old Nazarbayev’s rule of three decades.
