The president of Kyrgyzstan said on Saturday his ex-Soviet republic was ready to work with the EU, which hopes to tighten ties with a region Russia sees as its sphere of influence.
Russia's Black Sea port of Taman is poised to suspend exports of highly-explosive liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) because of concerns linked to drone attacks, three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Friday.
European Council President Charles Michel was in Kyrgyzstan on Friday for a key summit as Brussels seeks to tighten ties with Central Asian countries that Russia sees as its sphere of influence.
Oil loadings from Russia's western ports in June will fall by 6% on a daily basis from May, undermined by Russia's voluntary oil production cuts and higher domestic refinery runs, market sources said and Reuters calculations showed.
China is accelerating the building of a long-delayed Central Asian pipeline to source gas from Turkmenistan even as Russia pushes its own new Siberian connection, as Beijing juggles its energy security needs with diplomatic priorities.