• The Uzbek politician seemed to be discussing freedom.
• Energy Minister Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov told.
• Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan began discussing a natural gas union.

The Uzbek politician seemed to be discussing freedom.

Energy Minister Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov told the Uzbek news website Kun.uz on December 7.

“We won’t accept political requirements” for entering a “natural gas union” with Russia and Kazakhstan, he said.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan began discussing a “natural gas union” in late November.

Gas supply instability in Uzbekistan has led to recent protests.

Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth-largest country by area, slightly smaller than Argentina. Its northern portions are near Russia and can be fed by pipelines.

The partnership might assist Central Asia’s largest economies manage gas exports and domestic supply.

According to a November 27 framework, it might lead to economic, political, and defense union.

Defense is vital following Russia’s veiled threats and the invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin acted quickly.

The day after the “union’s” outline was published, Vladimir Putin informed his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev that Moscow should be part of the “natural gas union” that could ship natural gas across the three states – and to China.

Moscow praised the proposed arrangement, saying Kazakhstan could save “tens of billions of euros” by buying

Russian gas for its northern districts rather than building its own pipelines.

Observers say Moscow is determined to stop any type of integration between China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia that does not involve the Kremlin.

“It’s not hard to guess that [Putin’s] initiative was a response to the news that Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are creating a union that may become a base for sovereign Central Asian integration, especially when it comes to defense,” said Alisher Ilkhamov, head of the London-based think-tank Central Asia Due Diligence.

“It wasn’t Kremlin-approved,” he said.

Moscow meddles in Central Asian affairs.

In 1994, Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the “Eurasian Union of Nations” to strengthen economic relations between Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus.

Moscow joined it fearing rivalry with the EU and US, which invested billions in developing Kazakhstan’s undiscovered oil and gas deposits in the 1990s.

Russia took over the Eurasian Union, making it a Moscow-dominated coalition.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan joined because their remittances keep their economies afloat.

In 2008, Uzbekistan resigned.

China finished a Russian gas pipeline to Shanghai in early December.

The China-Russia east-route pipeline spans 8,000km (4,970 miles).

Russia’s northern gas fields are too far from existing pipelines to China for the Kremlin to sell more. They can connect to the Soviet-era network.

“Moscow is aiming to stake as much of the gas pie in the PRC as it can,” a Sinologist with the Moscow-based Carnegie Politika told Al Jazeera.

Russia’s desire to join the union surprised Kazakhstan, but Uzbekistan nixed it.

Analyst Ilkhamov said Tashkent didn’t want to join the union.

Kazakhstan says it’s still “considering” the idea, citing Western sanctions on Russia as the primary obstacle.

Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vasilenko: “Kazakhstan will not allow its territory to dodge sanctions.”

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