The Foreign Ministry saw the risk of Central Asian countries joining the sanctions

Some Central Asian countries may join Western sanctions against RUSSIA imposed due to hostilities in Ukraine , Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin admitted, TASS reports .

According to the minister, the positions of Moscow and the Central Asian states that unilateral sanctions are unacceptable and illegitimate coincide. Despite this, a number of countries “do not want to take on the corresponding risks, they signal their readiness to follow Western restrictive measures,” he said at the Central Asian conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

According to Galuzin, the Russian side does not dictate to other states what foreign and domestic policy to follow, "when it does not run counter to mutual obligations, including those on the CSTO, the EAEU and the CIS." He expressed confidence that the countries of Central Asia understand this and realize that "the artificial destruction of ties with Russia can result in more severe damage than the costs of the notorious secondary sanctions."

Central Asia is a vast, landlocked region of Asia that traditionally includes five countries of the former USSR - Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan , Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

After the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the US and the EU imposed several packages of sanctions against Moscow, including on hundreds of goods shipped from the West. In response to the restrictions, the Russian authorities legalized parallel imports  - the importation of goods into the country without the consent of the trademark owner. At the same time, imports of such goods from countries neighboring Russia increased by hundreds of percent. By the end of last year, 2.4 million tons of goods worth over $20 billion were imported into the country under this mechanism.

The Financial Times previously reported that after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, goods worth $2 billion were imported from the EU to Russia under the pretext of transit to other states, including Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while about half of them did not reach their destinations.

In April, the US Department of Commerce imposed EXPORT restrictions against companies from Russia, CHINA , Uzbekistan, Armenia and a number of other countries "for trying to evade export controls" and purchasing American goods for Russia's needs. The EC has also proposed imposing sanctions on companies from a number of countries, including two from Uzbekistan and one from Armenia, for supplying dual-use products to Moscow, the WSJ wrote. On May 15, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Brussels was discussing a ban on the transit of European goods through Russia to third countries.

The Russian authorities call Western sanctions ineffective, harming to a greater extent the initiators of the restrictions themselves and demand their lifting. The Kremlin noted that Moscow  is a key economic partner for many Central Asian countries, they are “organically” connected, and the West will not be able to destroy these ties.