Zhamaubayev promises to verify information about alleged Kazakhstani re-export of drones to Russia

Kazakhstani Minister of Finance Yerulan Zhamaubayev said that Kazakhstan does not sell drones and chips to Russia. However, he’s promised to check the information about such supplies published by several media outlets.

Zhamaubayev noted that Kazakhstani officials are taking every measure they can to ensure the country doesn’t breach international sanctions imposed on Russia. For instance, the agency is even going to introduce an additional system of risk management to avoid such situations.

«Our primary goal is to put an effective barrier for sanctioned goods. We are going to take all necessary measures whenever we detect such items,» the minister told journalists in response to the question about Aspan Arba and sanctions.

However, he also noted that the government «can’t consider every entrepreneur as a criminal.» Zhamaubayev also said that U.S. and European officials are keeping their eyes on the situation with sanctions and even visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to discuss these issues.

«When they see this happen they send us a list of sanctioned items. They also notify us when they discover such goods in conflict-affected regions and we do everything needed to prevent such situations. We have received a set of information from our partners and there was no hint about the company you mentioned. Now, we are going to deploy an additional risk management system to ensure that everything is working properly. We have thousands of entrepreneurs and some of them may indicate the wrong item,» the minister stated.

Earlier this month, the Vlast outlet published an investigation about how Russia is breaching the sanctions. The investigation was conducted in conjunction with iStories, OCCRP and Der Spiegel. According to the report, Russia managed to import more than 1,500 drones from Kazakhstan. This was done through Aspan Arba, a company registered in Kazakhstan in April 2022, two months after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the investigators believe that Russia continues to buy the drones and microchips that it needs for the production of rockets and bomb disposal robots.