Kyrgyzstan refuses $100 million Kazakhstan aid amid growing tensions

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.