ASTANA, June 2. /TASS/. Kazakh authorities are interested in the transit of Russian gas via the territory of the republic to Uzbekistan and are ready to provide the required infrastructure to do so, Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Almassadam Satkaliyev said on Friday.

"Uzbekistan and Gazprom continue talks on volumes and the gas price. The Kazakh side declared it is ready to support technical readiness of gas transit via our territory. As soon as these talks end, we will be ready to provide our infrastructure," the minister said.

Such infrastructure will be ready "as early as in the winter season of the next year," Satkaliyev said. "We are interested in such transit in terms of receiving transit money and in general within the framework of increasing reliability of energy supplies for the Central Asian region," the minister noted.