Kazakhstan says it will look at own interests first when enforcing Russia sanctions
Enforcing the Western sanctions on Russia has meant huge losses to producers in Kazakhstan, the Central Asian nation’s Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin complained, saying Astana ‘won’t blindly follow the sanctions’ without considering the impact on its own economy.
In an interview with Bloomberg, 16 August, he said Kazakhstan will continue to comply with the sanctions but will pursue a balanced policy to minimise the impact of sanctions on the domestic market.
Meanwhile, the Times of Central Asia said Zhumangarin had ‘emphasized that Western sanctions against Russia have caused disproportionate damage to his country.’ He said Kazakh producers are suffering huge losses, while their former Russian customers have reoriented themselves to suppliers inside Russia and ‘continue to prosper.’
Since Western sanctions were imposed on Moscow, Kazakhstan — which shares a 7,000-kilometre border with Russia — has been caught between a rock and hard place: It is squeezed by Russia, which needs the covert trade to continue, and by the EU and United States, which have given several warnings to Kazakhstan about illegal trade with Russia, especially military or dual-use items.
‘Kazakhstan opposes the use of economic sanctions that have a negative impact on global trade and the well-being of states,’ Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko said last October in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, Russia’s closest ally in the war in Ukraine.
Kazakhstan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have been identified by US and EU officials as top countries through which Russia continues to receive much-needed dual-use technology for its military.
