The US and the EU took up Kazakhstan: the expert assessed the “arguments” of the West

“Sanctions would be a disaster for him”

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Crime Elisabeth Rosenberg on April 25, during a visit to Kazakhstan, warned of the risks of secondary sanctions against banks and companies in the republic for helping the Russian Federation to circumvent the restrictions imposed against it. The delegation of the US Treasury Department, which arrived in Astana on Monday, included employees of financial intelligence and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). It is possible that the Americans prepared important “arguments” in advance.

Some publications suggest that dossiers on Kazakh officials and oligarchs, including information about their accounts and real estate in the West, as well as information about their participation in corruption schemes and circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions, could be such arguments. The resilience of the Russian economy to them is causing more and more obvious concern in the West, and there, apparently, they have come to the conclusion that Russia should be deprived of its last friends. Thus, Politico writes about some secret EU report, in which European officials describe plans to “poach” four key (each in their own region) allies of Russia and China – Brazil, Chile, Nigeria and Kazakhstan to their side. This will allow, as the authors of the report believe, to finally isolate the Russian Federation. Kazakhstan is interesting to European officials because it has significant oil and gas reserves and is a key state in Central Asia. In general, the goals of the West are not particularly hidden: to force Moscow’s allies to strictly comply with sanctions, to move these countries as far as possible from the Russian Federation, and, if possible, to force them to join the anti-Russian coalition. And if the case does not work out, then the already proven methods of the “color revolution” can be used.

About whether Kazakhstan is ready to give in to pressure from the West and stop helping the Russian Federation in circumventing sanctions, the political scientist told MK Andrey Suzdaltsev.

– In fact, Kazakhstan does not really want to help us. the expert said. – This is evidenced by public statements of Kazakh officials. Let me remind you that Kazakhstan stands for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. And he does not provide any support to the NWO. Kazakhstan remains in the pro-Ukrainian format, although partially forced. He is really very afraid of these secondary indirect sanctions for supporting the Russian economy. There is a problem here, and we understand it. The Russian leadership approaches this issue very delicately and does not make scandals. Kazakhstan is a self-sufficient state with a developed economy and developed exports. And almost all of his exports go to “unfriendly” countries. Moreover, most of Kazakhstan’s energy resources have been sold to Western companies. Therefore, Kazakhstan has few options for behavior. There is a lot of pressure on him. And now they have a direct goal – to turn Kazakhstan into our enemy.

– Are there any reasons why the pressure has increased right now?

– After the speech of the new Brazilian President Lula da Silva, in which he called for a cessation of hostilities and proposed Brazil along with China as mediators, the US went a little crazy. The states suddenly discovered that not everyone supports their position. Of course, they are now exerting frenzied pressure for everyone around to line up in such a coalition format (the West traditionally builds such coalitions of a vassal format), so that everyone would support Ukraine and oppose the Russian Federation. As you know, the United States and the West are categorically against a ceasefire, since, in their opinion, this will strengthen the position of the Russian Federation in future negotiations. So now there is also a huge pressure on Brazil. This behavior was not expected of her. Kazakhstan is a country that is closely connected with the Russian Federation, helps it with parallel imports, so there is pressure on it as well. So far, Kazakhstan is yielding to pressure. Sanctions would be a disaster for him. But on these sanctions, on gray schemes and bypass ways, people earn a lot of money. I think that regardless of the desire of the government of Kazakhstan, some part of the parallel import of goods to the Russian Federation will be preserved.