Update: 20/06/2022 11:50
Released: 20.06.2022, 11:50

MOSCOW – Trade war breaks out between Russia and Kazakhstan – Russia first began restricting Kazakh oil exports through the port of Novorossiysk on Sunday, while Kazakhstan later suspended transit of Russian coal. The Belarusian opposition newspaper Nasa Niva wrote this on its website, but the Kazakh authorities rejected it.

The official reason for restricting the transit of Kazakh oil is the alleged discovery of torpedoes and mines from the Second World War in a Black Sea port near the terminal where the pipeline from Kazakhstan ends. Mining work can take up to the end of the month. Furthermore, Kazakhstan suspended the transit of Russian coal and the authorities of this Central Asian country blocked 1,700 carriages containing coal on its territory.

Kazakhstan blocked transit of Russian coal when the European Union announced a ban on imports of Russian coal. The EU decision is due to take effect in August, but neighboring Russia has decided to implement it early, Belarusian newspapers noted.

The rift occurred against the backdrop of strong statements by Kazakh President Kasyma-Zhomart Tokajev, who publicly stated at the International Economic Forum St. Petersburg on Friday in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin that Kazakhstan will not recognize the separatist Donetsk-Luhansk People’s Republic. The Tokyevs also rejected Alexander Nevsky’s Russian Order, which they wanted to honor at St. Petersburg, writes Our Niva.

According to the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomol, Kazakh authorities have officially rejected false reports of 1,700 blocked Russian coal wagons that have spread in the media in the former Soviet republic: There are not many Russian carriages in Kazakhstan and transport is running normally. , said the authorities. They also assured that the planned work in Novorossiysk would not affect Kazakhstan’s oil exports.

Kazakhstan Russia coal oil trade economic diplomacy