Kazakhstan refuses to comply with Western sanctions against Russia to its detriment

Kazakhstan will not comply with Western sanctions against Russia to the detriment of its industries. This statement was made by Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the republic Serik Zhumangarin in an interview with journalist of the Rossiya-1 TV channel Pavel Zarubin, Sputnik reports.

He recalled that "Kazakhstan does not support sanctions, but it will not be a country to circumvent sanctions either, because first of all they will hurt the economy of Kazakhstan very much."

"And they understand this perfectly well, because when we say that we will not do it to the detriment of our own production, no one demands it today," Zhumangarin said.

He noted that "there are industries in the country whose products are included in the sanctions lists."

"We said on these goods that we are not going to do any restrictions. Since we have large labor collectives behind this, sometimes entire single—industry towns where these industries are located," the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan further said.

Earlier, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated that the republic would follow the sanctions regime against Russia. In particular, he spoke about this at a press conference after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin in September 2023.