Uzbekistan Rejects Putin’s Natural Gas Union Idea

Uzbekistan has rejected the idea of creating a so-called "natural gas union" with Russia and Kazakhstan that was proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, a sign of the growing divide between Moscow and former Soviet republics over the war against Ukraine. Putin proposed creating a "gas union" with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on November 28 at talks with Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time that the idea was proposed to establish a mechanism to ship natural gas between the…