The Kazakh authorities will not implement the decision of the court of the Astana International Financial Center to recognize the previously adopted international arbitration decision to recover $1.4 billion from Russian Gazprom in favor of Ukrainian Naftogaz.
About this the country's Minister of Justice, Erlan Sarsembayev, said in a comment to the Kazakh publication Zakon.kz.
According to him, Kazakhstan “will not become a transit platform for the implementation of decisions that have no legal connection with it.”
Sarsembayev also noted that Gazprom is not a member of the Astana International Financial Center, and the disputed agreement was not executed within its jurisdiction. At the same time, the minister claims that the parties did not conclude an agreement to transfer the issues of recognition and execution to this court.
On May 20, the court of the Astana International Financial Center ruled to recover about $1.4 billion from Gazprom in favor of Naftogaz. The case concerns the organization of the transit of natural gas.
At the time, the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan stated that Astana had nothing to do with this case, since the court is not part of the country's judicial system and operates according to its own regulations and international rules.
What is known about this case?
As reported by Naftogaz, in accordance with the agreement on organizing the transportation of natural gas from 2019, the Ukrainian company was obliged to organize the transit of blue fuel through the territory of Ukraine for the Russian Gazprom until the termination of the agreement on January 1, 2025.
In May 2022, as a result of the actions of the Russian army, the organization of gas transit through the Sokhranivka entry point stopped. Despite this, Naftogaz continued to provide gas transit services through the Sudzha entry point as stipulated in the agreement. However, Gazprom refused to pay the full fee for organizing gas transportation, thereby violating its contractual obligations.
In September of the same year, Naftogaz initiated arbitration proceedings in Switzerland under the Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), as provided for in the agreement between the companies.
In June 2025, an arbitration tribunal based in Switzerland issued a final decision, finding Gazprom fully liable for its failure to fulfill its obligations and finding that there were no reasonable grounds for non-payment. The court then ordered the Russian company to pay the debt for gas transit services, interest, and arbitration costs.
In January 2026, the Swiss Federal Tribunal denied Gazprom's appeal against the decision, definitively confirming its validity.
Naftogaz noted that since Gazprom voluntarily failed to fulfill its obligations, the Ukrainian company continues to seek recovery of the debtor's assets in various jurisdictions.