30 days became just six. The pipeline through which the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan exports oil was actually supposed to be blocked for a month. That’s what a Russian court decided last week. Officially due to possible “violations of the oil spill response plan” after a pipeline exploded in Tengiz, Kazakhstan.

But like many court decisions in Russia, this one was at least also political: Shortly before, Russia’s neighboring state of Kazakhstan had announced that it wanted to deliver oil to Europe – in order to continue to guarantee the continent’s energy supply. The Kazakh President called on the EU to expand alternative pipelines, such as across the Caspian Sea.

It is not the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war that Kazakhstan has opposed its former ally, Russia. The rebelliousness of the former Soviet state is likely to be a thorn in the side of the Russian elite.