Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev plans to hold extraordinary presidential elections later this year, hot on the heels of winning a referendum to change the presidential term to seven years instead of the current duration of five years.

Mirziyoyev pushed for energy independence from Russia and Kazakhstan after winning his first term in the office in 2016, following the death of long-serving Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov/.

However, severe supply shortages last winter led him to agree to start importing Russian gas later this year.

Mirziyoyev has already won a second term in office, after by collecting more than 80% of votes in an October 2021 election, but the new constitution will allow him to run for a second seven-year term in 2030.

According to the existing law, extraordinary presidential elections have to be held within the two months of announcement of the change.

“In the current situation, when acute and complex processes prevail in the world and in our region, identifying the correct and effective development path becomes the most pressing and urgent issue,” the presidential press service has quoted Mirziyoyev as saying.

During Mirziyoyev’s push for energy independence, well connected domestic players and risk-hungry foreign investors were rewarded with oil and gas producing and oil refining assets, but efforts to lure Western oil majors have seen little progress.

Shortly after his win in 2016, Mirziyoyev offered strong support to state owned gas producer Uzbekneftegaz in its efforts to invest in the development of depleted gas assets with reversing the country’s decline curve in gas production.

Despite clawing back some lost output, these efforts were not enough to prevent winter shortages in Uzbekistan. Covid-related restrictions dealt a further blow to gas production in 2020.

The shortfalls led Mirziyoyev to lean towards gas imports after Russia had proposed refurbishing the old Soviet-era gas pipeline network in neighbouring Kazakhstan to enable Uzbekistan to import Russian volumes.

Russia made the proposal as it sought new markets to counter the shortfall from its drop in pipeline gas supplies to Europe in 2022, combined with the effect of Western sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukrtasine earlier the same year.

As well as the gas imports from Russia, Uzbekistan has resumed imports of Russian crude, with the volumes transiting Kazakhstan.

According to Kazakh oil pipeline operator KazTransoil, about 1.65 million barrels of Russian oil are scheduled to transit Kazakhstan on the way to Uzbekistan this year, with the first deliveries having started in March.

KazTransoil said only 264,000 barrels of Russian oil were sent to Uzbekistan in 2018, and no transit volumes were sent between 2019 and 2022

Uzbekistan is the most populous former Soviet republic in Central Asia and one of the few to show support for Russia following the Ukraine invasion.

Earlier in May, Russia showed its appreciation of Uzbekistan’s support by allowing Uzbek nationals working in Russia to overstay their permit without any penalty or expulsion, according to Tashkent-based news portal KUN.