The Russian court overturned the ban on the export of Kazakh oil

A Russian court on Monday overturned a 30-day ban on offloading oil supplies from Kazakhstan, a source of tension between the two countries.

Last week, Kazakh President Kassym-Zhamart Tokayev ordered officials to find oil export routes that bypass Russia, threatening to deepen tensions between the two neighbors over Ukraine.

The order came after a Russian court imposed a 30-day ban on offloading from the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) pipeline from Kazakhstan’s oil fields to a terminal in Novorossiysk, citing environmental violations.

In the months since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February, Kazakhstan has already had two notable disruptions to crude oil supplies via a pipeline that unloads at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

The stops have fueled speculation that the Kremlin may be punishing its Central Asian ally for its neutral stance on Ukraine.

But on Monday, a court in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar replaced the 30-day suspension with a fine of 200,000 rubles ($3,250), the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates the pipeline, said.

The consortium said a 30-day shutdown would have “irreversible consequences for the production process.”

Speaking at an economic forum last month in St. Petersburg, where he shared the stage with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, President Tokayev raised eyebrows by calling Russian-backed separatist entities in eastern Ukraine “quasi-states” and saying Kazakhstan does not recognize them.