Ministry of Culture explains why the website of the US Department of Commerce has been blocked in Kazakhstan

According to some media reports, the website of the U.S. Department of Commerce has been blocked allegedly because of a publication concerning the breach of sanctions / Photo: Shutterstock

The website of the Bureau of Industry and Security under the U.S. Department of Commerce has been blocked in Kazakhstan because it was identified as a phishing resource, according to the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan. At the same time, the agency underlined that the blocking of the website has nothing to do with any publication about “Kazakhstan’s assistance to Russia in breaching sanctions.”

Why has the website been blocked? The Ministry of Culture says that it constantly monitors the media landscape within the country to ensure compliance with Kazakhstan’s legislation. On April 26, 2023, the agency designated 21 online resources including bis.doc.gov as phishing and authorized blocking of these resources.

«This means that information circulating in media and social networks insisting that the website has been blocked due to a publication about Kazakhstan allegedly assisting Russia in breaching sanctions is false,» the ministry stated.

Will the authorities restore access to the website? According to the authorized agency, it is going to conduct an additional examination of the website bis.doc.gov and will restore access to the resource if no violations are found.

What other websites were blocked in Kazakhstan recently? In early August, Kazakhstani authorities blocked access to the yandex.kz domain in Kazakhstan regarding the website storage of personal data of Kazakhstanis outside the country.

At the end of August, the country blocked access to the Russian TV channel Tsargrad due to the dissemination of certain types of information that could cause public outcry and ethnic discord. If the channel corrects the violations, the access will be restored.

What does Kazakhstan have to do with the breaching of sanctions? At the end of April, the governments of the U.S. and the U.K. announced the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions against Kazakhstani businesses and banks for assisting Russia in breaching international sanctions.

Since the moment Western producers and suppliers left the Russian market, resulting in a shortage of many goods, Kazakhstan has become one of the key routes for parallel imports. Some media outlets reported that Kazakhstani companies have purchased three times more fridges and five times more breast pumps from Europe, which is unusual considering the declining birth rate in Kazakhstan.