Russian businesses are facing new challenges in Kazakhstan, which has been serving as a transit hub for settlements with China and the import of Chinese goods, according to a report by The Moscow Times. Several Kazakh banks, the publication said, have stopped transferring money from Russia to Chinas.

Kazakhstan became a major hub for importing goods into Russia after Western companies left the Russian market and banking sanctions limited the ability to make payments in major world currencies after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

However, beginning in April last year, Kazakh authorities tightened control over the movement of goods across the EAEU border. In October, the country introduced a ban on the export of 106 types of sanctioned products to Russia.

Russian businesses started having difficulties with Kazakh banks in the spring, soon after US President Joe Biden expanded the powers of the US Treasury, allowing it to impose secondary sanctions against any banks in the world involved in transactions with the Russian military-industrial complex.

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Under the threat of being disconnected from the global dollar system, banks in Turkey, the UAE, and China began blocking settlements with Russian companies. The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing, from whom businesses were expecting a solution to the problem, has so far been unsuccessful in improving the situation, and problems have even worsened, according to representatives of importing companies.

Some regional agricultural banks in China, through which Russian money was best “slipped,” have announced a temporary suspension of transactions with Russia. Large banks in China now request an export declaration for most contracts with Russia, depriving Russian buyers of the opportunity to cheat and take out more sanctioned equipment under the guise of less sanctioned items.

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