The European Union may introduce severe restrictive measures to prevent the re-export of goods from Europe from Kyrgyzstan to Russia. David O'Sullivan, International Special Envoy for the Implementation of EU Sanctions, said on March 28, at a press conference in Bishkek.
The high-profile European politician explained this by the tripled volume of sales of European goods to the Russian Federation from Kyrgyzstan in 2022.
David O'Sullivan noted that the European Union is going to initiate negotiations with the Kyrgyz authorities on the issue of the transit of goods to Russia, circumventing anti-Russian economic sanctions. The EU intends to obtain guarantees from the leadership of the Kyrgyz Republic that it would stop the re-export of EU-origin products to Russian markets.
According to the Special Envoy, Kyrgyzstan may fall under the sanctions that the European Union intends to impose on a number of Central Asian countries, which also execute the re-export of European goods to Russia, bypassing restrictive measures. According to the Telegraph, there has been an increase in exports of washing machines and used cars from Europe to the Russian Federation.
The European Union may significantly limit the access of Kyrgyz enterprises and individuals to intermediaries in European markets, Sullivan added at a press conference.
“We would not want the issue of sanctions to be the reason for the deterioration of relations between the European Union and Kyrgyzstan,” he concluded.
According to the Kyrgyz political scientist Denis Berdakov, a huge flow of goods enters Russia via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, both consumer goods and, possibly, those microchips that are used in the Russian military industry.
Berdakov stressed that the European Union had been moving towards this decision for a long time and it is not yet clear when exactly it will be implemented. One way or another, goods today still arrive in Central Asian countries.
There is a strange game going on when Turkey and a number of other states play to provide financial, intermediary, technological, and logistical services for Russia and Belarus. The main problem with all sanctions is how easily they can be circumvented.
“We see that the Islamic Republic “dodges” most of the technological sanctions, thanks to its autonomous financial system. However, due to the changed geopolitical situation and massive size, Russia has been named a de facto union of Russia, Turkey, China, and the Middle East. In this context, the imposition of sanctions on all sectors of Central Asia is unlikely. Although their introduction into certain sectors is quite possible,” the expert emphasized.
Evgeny Korotovskikh, Bishkek
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