Tokayev vows to follow Western sanctions against Russia

Kazakhstan will comply with all the restrictions that the world community has imposed on Russia, although work with Moscow will continue, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in an interview with Russia 24 TV channel.

“Sanctions are sanctions , we should not violate them, especially since we receive notifications that in case of violation of sanctions, so-called secondary sanctions from the West will follow against our economy,” he explained.

At the same time, "Kazakhstan in no way renounces its allied obligations." “It would be wrong, it would be, in the end, unjustified from the point of view of the future,” Tokayev argues.

According to him, today Kazakhstan is interacting with the Russian government "at a rapid pace" and is trying to build a format of interaction that does not imply violation of the sanctions regime. “There is a very complex, delicate work going on, which I could call the passage between Scylla and Charybdis... The situation is unique. No one could have expected that we would live in this particular reality, ”the politician stated.

In April, Timur Suleimenov, an aide to the President of Kazakhstan, made similar statements, saying that "Kazakhstan will not be a tool to circumvent US and EU sanctions." “Although we are part of an economic union with Russia and Belarus, we are also part of the international community,” Suleimenov explained. It is necessary for Kazakhstan to maintain relations with Russia due to the close connection of the economies, he explained, but Astana will do everything to avoid falling under secondary sanctions. “We will do our best to control sanctioned goods, we will do everything to control investments from citizens and companies that are on the sanctions lists,” he concluded.