Kazakhstan has tightened the conditions for the transit of Russian trucks: they started talking about new economic differences

The root of the conflict lies in the energy plane

Kazakhstan began to detain Russian trucks that transport goods from Europe. At least eight trucks have already been stopped. Astana has claims to carriers. We are talking about transit transportation, when trucks from the EU are taken out by a European company, and on the border with Belarus, the road train is coupled onto trucks of Belarusian or Russian organizations. Kazakhstan now requires drivers to have permits for goods issued by a company that transported goods through the EU. Meanwhile, experts believe that there are political overtones in the actions of the Kazakh side. As a result, such games can lead to a shortage of imported components needed by entire sectors of the Russian economy.

According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, Astana delays trucks and requires drivers to provide permits for goods issued not to a Russian carrier, but to a company that transported goods across the EU to Belarus or Russia. The department considers the demands of Kazakhstan unreasonable. Despite this, the Association of International Road Carriers (ASMAP) called on Russian companies to temporarily refrain from transit transportation until the situation clears up.

It is still difficult to say what exactly this situation will lead to – a lot of goods are imported through Kazakhstan, not only from Europe, but also from Asian countries (for example, China or India). And the list of such goods is quite large. With regard to parallel imports, the situation in Kazakhstan will lead to delays: consumer goods will arrive late in retail chains, says Taras Koval, president of the Association of Transport Experts and Specialists.

According to him, initially the rules for transfer in Kazakhstan differed from those in Russia and Belarus: transfer was not allowed during such transit. In April of this year, for political reasons, Astana lifted all restrictions. Carriers from Kazakhstan were very outraged: the Russians began to take away their work.

“I suppose that in the current situation, it was not without politics. The Americans found leverage on their Kazakh colleagues and applied them. We can say that there is a crisis in relations within the EAEU,” Koval believes.

Meanwhile, according to B&C Agency managing partner Ivan Samoilenko, Kazakhstan’s actions are a political gesture, and also, probably, some kind of response to the actions of the Russian authorities in relation to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

“Kazakhstan takes political steps and responds to Russia’s economic actions in relation to this company,” says the source of MK. — CPC is Astana’s main source of oil revenues, its pipeline brings oil to Novorossiysk from Kazakhstani fields, and then the raw material is exported to Europe. In the spring of this year, CPC began to have problems – the shipment of raw materials from Novorossiysk was practically stopped, first by order of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (due to oil leaks), then for technical reasons. And this route provides 80% of Kazakh oil supplies to the EU. So the situation with trucks carrying goods to Russia from Europe is an obvious reciprocal demarche of Astana.”

According to Samoylenko, the negative consequences for Russian consumers in the form of delays in deliveries are the lesser of evils. It is much more important that these problems do not complicate the situation with critical imports – components, materials, raw materials that are necessary for entire sectors of our economy.

“Let’s hope that a solution will be found and the necessary consultations between the governments and relevant departments of the two countries – Russia and Kazakhstan, will take place in the near future, which will lead to normalization in this matter,” the expert summed up.