"[Vladimir] Putin and [Nursultan] Nazarbayev are expected to discuss a wide range of bilateral strategic cooperation issues," an official said. "They will focus on ways to continue intensifying trade and economic cooperation."
He highlighted ties in the nuclear energy sector with the Central Asian state, which holds 15% of the world's uranium reserves.
The two countries opened their first joint venture to enrich uranium in Angarsk, East Siberia, as part of Moscow's non-proliferation initiative early last year to create a network of enrichment centers that will also be responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste.
Russia has built a $1 billion uranium-mining facility in Kazakhstan, the project that also involved neighboring ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Russia is to receive 20,000 metric tons of uranium from the facility, its first uranium-mining venture on foreign soil.
Other joint ventures in the sphere include a company in Almaty to focus on innovative power plants based on Soviet submarine reactors.
The official said mutual trade had grown 31.2% in 2006, hitting about $13 billion. He added the presidents of the two countries, which are members of an array of post-Soviet economic and security organizations, had held 13 meetings last year.
In Moscow, Putin and Nazarbayev will also focus on oil and natural gas projects, including the expected launch of a gas processing plant in Orenburg, Russia's south Urals, which will refine hydrocarbons Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas deposit and from a nearby deposit, where production volumes have been falling since 1997.
Its maximum refining capacity of 30.6 billion cu m, including 15 billion from Kazakhstan will be achieved in 2012.
Russia and Kazakhstan are also parties to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which includes a 935-mile Caspian pipeline linking oil fields in western Kazakhstan to Russia's Black Sea coast and pumping 30 million metric tons of oil per year (604,110 bbl/d). The CPC also comprises Oman and involves Chevron, LUKoil, ExxonMobil, BP, Rosneft, Shell, ENI, BG and KazMunaiGaz.
Mineral-rich Kazakhstan has posted some of the strongest GDP growth rates among ex-Soviet states, averaging 9% annually between 2002 and 2005. Its booming energy sector has attracted considerable foreign direct investment.
Putin and Nazarbayev will also address regional security issues.
