“A friend cannot comply with hostile sanctions” – Kommersant FM

“This is just impudence,” is how Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented on the upcoming tour of the EU Special Representative for Sanctions in Central Asia. David O’Sullivan will visit, in particular, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The main topic of the negotiations is compliance with anti-Russian restrictive measures. According to Mr. Lavrov, in this way Western states “humiliate the respective countries.” Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize believes that sanctions will inevitably become tougher.

David O’Sullivan (not to be confused with Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security) serves as the European Union’s special envoy for sanctions. The position was established by a resolution of the European Commission in 2022. This is an official, a civil servant whose task is to monitor the implementation of anti-Russian restrictions.

Former Western partners finally came to the conclusion that the main thing is not quantity, but quality. No matter how many packages you enter, they will not work effectively without proper control. Things in this regard, frankly speaking, are not always good for the West, however, relevant work is being carried out.

The focus, as you might guess, is on the CIS countries and, first of all, Kazakhstan as a large logistics center. It is from there that O’Sullivan begins his tour.

Russia, of course, is not very pleased with everything that is happening, if only because it means a threat to the economy. Not everything has been replaced by imports; much still needs to be imported from abroad to achieve sustainable development goals. There is also a political point: the Republic of Kazakhstan is considered the closest, one might say, ally. A friend cannot comply with hostile sanctions, this is nonsense. Anyway, to the point.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is in a very difficult position, and has been for quite some time. He talks to the West about strict compliance with the sanctions policy. But he also assures Moscow of eternal friendship. Although various injections there have become more frequent lately.

For example, the president spoke in Kazakh at a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin. He uttered literally a few phrases, and this literally shocked the Russian delegation. We didn’t expect such a trick from our partner. Although, in theory, there is no sensation here: Kazakhstan is an independent state, and its leader is simply obliged to speak the national language during public events.

But again we digress. Back to O’Sullivan. The West isn’t exactly putting pressure, but it’s still asking in a good way. The leader of Kazakhstan, as mentioned above, agrees and does not argue, but the problem remains. The same thing is happening in Uzbekistan and other Asian former Soviet republics. The intrigue is whether the EU and the US will decide to move from persuasion to more or less tough measures. Let’s not guess.

But one thing is clear: sanctions will become tougher. And the allies are forced to accept all kinds of Western envoys with bread and salt, because they see prospects for themselves in partnership with the Western world. They don’t want to turn away from him, so they are forced to respond to requests and promises. And for Russia these are yet another risks, which, apparently, will only increase.

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