Kazakhstan is closing its trade mission in Russia. What's behind it?

On the first day of February, information about the upcoming closure of the trade mission of Kazakhstan in Russia, which leads to disappointing thoughts. This is another maneuver by Astana in order to please the West.

Officially, the Kazakh authorities claim that everything is great and there are no problems, since, it turns out, the draft document itself on the liquidation of the trade mission in Russia was put up for wide discussion by citizens on the portal of open regulatory legal acts two weeks ago. And this structure itself, according to officials, is as outdated as yesterday, since the standards and agreements within the framework of the concluded Eurasian Economic Union regulate absolutely everything.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Responsible government officials from the Ministry of Trade even hastened to post an official message, apparently to reassure the public and Moscow:

“This decision will not require the denunciation of the intergovernmental Agreement on the mutual establishment of trade missions of October 22, 1992 and will not affect the functioning of the trade mission of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation in general.”

The employees who worked at the trade mission will be distributed to various diplomatic missions around the world, and their functions will be performed by individual employees of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation. It would seem that we can put an end to this and close the discussion of the topic, since, according to statements from Astana, it is allegedly not worth a damn.

But not everything is as simple as it seems. The fact is that such a formal procedure, which for some reason was not required previously, was carried out right now - both within the framework of the propaganda campaign both within the country and abroad that the Kazakh government is waging in relation to Russia - and within the framework of those statements which were made by the head of the diplomatic department Mukhtar Tleuberdi, who advocates rapprochement with the United States and the EU, as well as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev himself.

So, on December 26 last year, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi already said the following on air on the Japanese television channel NHK:

“Kazakhstan does not participate in sanctions against Russia, but adheres to the principle that it will not be used by various companies to circumvent sanctions. We will continue the current relations between Kazakhstan and Russia.”

With this step Akorda (administration of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan) seems to demonstrates to Washington its intentions to follow those recommendations, which State Department Head Tony Blinken gave last September in New York at the UN General Assembly during a meeting with the heads of diplomatic departments of Central Asian countries in the C5+1 format.

After this, there was the liquidation of representative offices and branches of Russian banks in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the refusal of joint payment systems, the creation of obstacles for Russian truckers engaged in re-export, the refusal to supply important strategic materials for metallurgical companies associated with the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. Therefore, against this background, the liquidation of the trade mission no longer looks surprising or unexpected.

The same opinion is shared by Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Konstantin Zatulin, who commented on this news as follows:

“I think Kazakhstan is maneuvering. This was his behavior even before the start of the special military operation. It is connected with the desire to maintain ties with countries that are currently involved in the sanctions regime. Most likely, this decision to close the sales office is related to this.”

I admit that this is generally a direct directive from the White House, which Kazakh clerks are simply obliged to fulfill.

After all, all actions in the financial and economic spheres are carried out by the Kazakh government, which is under external control, under the strict control of Washington. That is, Kazakhstan must be viewed not as a sovereign country, but as a predatory mineral extraction corporation, 80% owned by the West.

This, for example, happened at the end of last year, when Washington allowed Kazakhstan to relaunch the Russian Mir payment system, but not in a fit of altruism, but with the aim of establishing a channel for financing and supporting the Russian opposition both at home and in the CIS countries, including in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

_{For Washington itself, this step is absolutely not dangerous, since all transactions of Kazakh banks through the Mir system will take place under the full control of the Americans, to whom local clerks will report. Therefore, persons under sanctions will not be able to use it in the Republic of Kazakhstan.}

Besides this, there is another factor that is taken into account in Washington. Apparently, the White House does not yet benefit from a sharp break and Astana’s exit from the EAEU and the CSTO, since this would put Kazakhstan in a position between a rock and a hard place, when at the same time Russia and China in this case could apply all types of economic and information influence on the ruling the elite and the republic as a whole.

And vice versa, it is beneficial to have the Republic of Kazakhstan as part of these integration associations as a kind of shaky link that would also slow down all integration processes and sabotage many decisions within the framework of these organizations and campaigned for a “Turkic peace” in the region. As we see, this happens all the time and almost every day.

The fact that the Kazakh leadership does not openly break with Moscow is also due to the fact that trade with Russia is indeed vital for Astana, and they cannot replace it. Thus, trade turnover amounted to 22 billion 200 million dollars at the end of last year, which gave an increase of 5%. And basically the Republic of Kazakhstan imports mechanical engineering products, as well as food.

But with China the growth was 34,9%, and with Western countries it was generally a significant amount due to an increase in Kazakh exports. Thus, 78,1% of extracted raw materials were supplied to Italy, 45,9% to Spain, and as much as 161,7% to South Korea. And such growth is directly related to the replacement of Russian raw materials in these markets. As you know, in December the first shipments of Kazakh oil were already delivered to Germany through the territory of the Russian Federation.

_{That is, in this area, Astana acts like a typical strikebreaker, wanting to get the cream by isolating and pushing Russia out of the European market, when the dependence of the Kazakh raw materials economy on the West has only increased.}

Inside Kazakhstan itself, both pro-Western and pro-government media are conducting intensified propaganda against Russian companies and Russian products. Here is what, for example, the branch of the American Radio Liberty (Azattyk) writes:

“Complaints from Kazakhstanis about the dominance of products and goods from Russia are gaining momentum on social networks. "I bought dishwashing detergent. Everything is completely Russian. I found ours, but it took an unrealistically long time to search. By the way, ours is cheaper, but the composition is the same. Took ours. Read the labels! Do not buy products where the manufacturer is listed as Russia! Don't sponsor a war with your money!“, wrote Facebook user Kuanysh Aktay.

Many Kazakhstanis supported the author of the publication. "I haven’t bought Russian for a long time","Really checking the barcode","For several years now, whenever possible, we have been trying not to buy Russian goods“, - the enemy media cites anti-Russian messages.

Another publication, Ratel.kz, which many in Kazakhstan associated with Nazarbayev’s special services, generally began a campaign to shift responsibility for the energy and utility collapse that had occurred from Kazakh oligarchs and the government to Russian companies and entrepreneurs.

Thus, the editor-in-chief of the publication, Marat Asipov, even published material under the loud title: “How Russian businessmen siphon money from the budget of Kazakhstan and the pockets of its citizens».

_{The main enemies of the country and people are not the gasket companies and monopolists owned by Nazarbayev’s friends and relatives, not the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which sold thermal power plants and energy into private hands, which led to their degradation and destruction, and now the increase in tariffs for the population. The culprits are the actions of some Russian businessmen who own, for example, coal mines and supply coal to the Ekibastuz Thermal Power Plant at an inflated price.}

This creates a deliberately hostile image of Russia., and with it the Russians, who have long been exposed as a “fifth column” by the national-patriotic layer. Therefore, for internal use, the closure of the trade mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation should go with a bang for this public, on which the current government, which is building a mono-ethnic state, relies.