Kazakhstan says it will not “blindly follow” sanctions against Russia
Kyiv • UNN
Kazakhstan promises to prioritize its own economic interests in applying sanctions against Russia. The country is balancing Western restrictions with regional economic needs.
Kazakhstan is pursuing a new line of sanctions against Russia, vowing to put its own economic interests first, as it deepens trade ties with countries from Iran to China, Bloomberg reports, UNN writes.
Details
According to Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Integration, Serik Zhumangarin, this Central Asian country "will not blindly follow the sanctions" if they affect domestic companies that are major employers in their regions.
"We will not allow our own producers to be banned from trade," he said in an interview in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
"This is a dramatic shift in rhetoric that reflects the maneuvering of Kazakhstan, the world's largest landlocked country, in seeking access to global markets for commodity and agricultural exports. But the challenges are only growing as the neighboring economies of Russia and Iran become the most sanctioned in the world, and Kazakhstan is under scrutiny by the West for facilitating the supply of restricted goods," the publication writes.
Although Kazakhstan has been reportedly opposed to the US-led sanctions campaign over the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, senior officials such as Zhumangarin have not previously challenged the restrictions publicly.
Kazakhstan has not joined the ban on the sale of ball bearings, which have dual military and civilian applications, because a local factory produces them to a specification traditionally used only in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, according to Zhumangarin. Western governments say the ball bearings are among the so-called "high-priority" war goods needed by the Russian defense industry.
Hinting that Kazakhstan's compliance with the rules may have exceptions, Zhumangarin made it clear that he would continue to comply with the rules anyway, as he "could not stand" the sanctions.
Local companies added to the sanctions list by the U.S. Treasury Department are in the process of being closed, Zhumangarin said, without going into details.
Kazakhstan is among the countries that have played a central role in the efforts of the United States and its allies to isolate Russia's economy. Kazakhstan and Russia are members of a customs union and share the second longest border in the world after the US-Canada border, and a pipeline linked to the Russian port of Novorossiysk transports about 80% of Kazakhstan's oil exports.
But Zhumangarin said that some of the measures aimed at restricting Russia's access to goods have instead disproportionately hurt Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, Western governments have done little to compensate Kazakhstan, which considered Russia its largest trading partner before the war.
In the absence of restrictions, "the profits would have remained in Kazakhstan," he said. Instead, now they "go to those against whom you have imposed sanctions.
The change in trade flows around Kazakhstan has reportedly largely benefited China. It is now Kazakhstan's largest trading partner with a share exceeding one-fifth of the total. The European Union accounted for 36% of the total in the first half of this year.
Russia accounted for 18% of the total trade volume in the first six months of 2024, which is almost one and a half percentage points less than in 2022. At the same time, according to Bloomberg Economics, Kazakhstan has become one of the largest transshipment centers for car exports from the EU to Russia.
According to Zhumangarin, Kazakhstan has largely overcome problems with payments with Russia by working with banks not under sanctions and conducting about 88% of transactions in national currencies.
Now, as stated, Kazakhstan is faced with the task of balancing priorities to get out of isolation without violating restrictions against its neighbors.
The country's government has asked the West for concessions that would allow it to sell goods to Iran or use the country for transit, but to no avail. Kazakhstan has never recognized any unilateral sanctions and plans to continue to do so, Zhumangarin said.
"Every time we have to bargain," he said. - "But we as a country have to live somehow.
