
In recent weeks, Russian companies have been inundating their partners in Kazakhstan with requests to help them circumvent Western sanctions and import essential goods, REUTERS writes, citing seven people familiar with the cases.
For example, an unnamed businessman from Kazakhstan said he was offered $1 million to help transport rare earth metals from Australia by truck. “From telephones and bearings to aircraft parts and rare earth metals,” he gave the agency examples of requests, adding that he turned them all down.
As the agency writes, another businessman in Kazakhstan was faced with a refusal in the office of a European company to sell him equipment, because "it could end up in Russia." “When I go out, I get a call from a Turkish company offering me the same equipment,” the entrepreneur said.
Two agency sources link Russia's increased interest in supplies from Kazakhstan to reports of Turkey's plans to stop the transit of sanctioned goods. “That means the boom is just beginning,” said one foreign trade businessman.
On March 10, BLOOMBERG, citing a high-ranking Turkish official, wrote that against the backdrop of US pressure , the Turkish government ordered from March 1 to stop the transit of goods to Russia, which are subject to US and European Union sanctions .
Ankara did not officially announce such a decision, and experts interviewed by RBC doubted that such notifications would be, since this would be confirmation that Turkey facilitated the transit of sanctioned goods to Russia.
Read PIONERPRODUKT .by "The cost of inaction is rising." What is happening with ESG investments in 2023 Where are they now looking for oilExxonMobil, BP and Shell Five phrases from parents that discourage teenagers from learning Stripe seeks money and fires people. What's next for the world's most valuable startupUS Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, during a visit to Central Asia, urged respect for sanctions against Russia and promised help from Washington to deal with collateral damage. However, the agency writes, one of the officials who was on the sidelines of the event with Blinken said that the governments of the countries in the region could do little to stop the re-export of goods to Russia.
The US and EU have imposed several packages of sanctions against Russia after the start of the military operation in Ukraine. Restrictive measures affected the reserves of the Central Bank, a wide range of exports and imports, including dual-use goods. Moscow considers the sanctions illegitimate and illegal.