Kazakhstan To Leave Lukashenka's Regime Without Sanction 'Loophole'

The Kazakh authorities will deprive the Belarusian carriers of the opportunity to work in the European market.

Kazakh authorities intend to tighten the rules of work in the country for foreign carriers, including Russian and Belarusian, who used Kazakh registration to circumvent sanctions and transport goods to and from Europe.

Asel Sadykova, chairwoman of the Union of Carriers and Freight Forwarders of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said that starting from February 20, the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan will amend the rules of access to international cargo transportation, according to which the companies-newcomers will be deprived of such rights.

According to her, more than 5,000 trucks from Russia and Belarus re-registered in Kazakhstan after the war started in Ukraine so that they could carry goods to and from Europe under Kazakhstan's quota.

As a result, the number of vans engaged in international transport has grown nearly 2.3 times, to 16,000, and Russian and Belarusian companies, which recently became Kazakhstani, have taken 70 percent of the market.

As a result, Kazakhstan has a shortage of permits for travel to Europe, and national carriers have begun to sound the alarm, repeatedly appealing to the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development.

Sadykova said these complaints were heard: the new rules will end the practice of re-registering Russian trucks in Kazakhstan and will protect Kazakhstan carriers from competition. However, she acknowledged that it is not clear what will happen to those Russian and Belarusian companies who have "changed their citizenship".

Kazakhstan will not join the sanctions against Russia, but will not help it circumvent the existing regime of restrictions, Mukhtar Tleuberdi, the republic's foreign minister, said in December.