DISINFO: EU demands that Kazakhstan join in anti-Russia sanctions
SUMMARY
EU interests in Kazakhstan are clear – oil, rare earth elements, other natural resources, transit opportunities, and participation in anti-Russian sanctions. EU continuously visits Astana and pressures Kazakhstan to get involved in sanctions against Russia.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the belligerent West trying to encircle Russia, made in the context of measures being taken to enforce the sanctions on Russia imposed by the EU in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The partnership between Kazakhstan and the EU aim to foster mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, not to counter Russia or any other nation. The EU - Central Asia strategy outlines three priority strands for EU engagement: investing in regional cooperation and partnering for resilience and prosperity.
The EU works with Kazakhstan in order to prevent the use of its territory as a platform for the circumvention of EU sanctions imposed on Russia. EU respects the decision of other countries, like Kazakhstan, not to join the sanctions and welcomes constructive dialogue with the Kazakh authorities regarding sanctions circumvention. An intensive dialogue is going on in this respect on both political and technical level.
During his second visit to Astana on November 28, 2023 David O'Sullivan, the European Union's Special Envoy for the implementation of sanctions, stressed that ‘The purpose of these visits is not to persuade countries to adopt our sanctions or to align with them, but to discuss with them how they can avoid their jurisdiction being used as a platform for the circumvention of our sanctions or indeed as a platform for servicing the Russian military industrial complex.’
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Borrell admitted that the West relies on Kazakhstan’s support in anti-Russia blockade; that West tries to force Kazakhstan to join anti-Russian sanctions policy; the EU uses the CIS to contain Russia by all means: financial, economic, and military; that US-sponsored Kazakhstan protests aimed to undermine CIS stability, that protests in Kazakhstan are a new Western attempt to organise a colour revolution, that events in Kazakhstan are another Western-made colour revolution or that EU and US aim to generate a new wave of anti-government protests in Belarus.