Kazakhstan Joins Russia's "trade Blockade"

• 2.10.2025, 9:28

The country has started to massively search for sub-sanctioned goods in cargoes traveling from China to Russia.

Kazakhstan's customs began inspecting 99% of trucks carrying potentially unsanctioned goods from China to Russia. Because of this, a multi-kilometer queue has accumulated on the Kazakh-Russian border since mid-September, participants in road freight transport told "Kommersant". "Many carriers, fearing to be inspected, turn to the settling pits to 'wait for the best moment,'" said Maksim Emelin, deputy head of SLC's logistics department. According to him, cargoes that are not subject to sanctions, on average, pass the border in 3-5 days, which is also longer than it used to be.

The difficulties with the passage of goods across the border of Kazakhstan are associated with the strengthening of control at border crossings - customs officers identify unscrupulous shippers and carriers, said the director of international transportation operations FM Logistic in Russia Yaroslav Belousov. "To a lesser extent, such inspections affect large customers who send 30-50 vehicles a week across the border," he says. According to Belousov, at the moment cars near border crossings have occupied all the nearest parking lots and are parked on the roadsides. In total, about 7.5 thousand trucks have piled up on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia, said a Kommersant source familiar with the situation.

"There is a list of cargoes that are risky to bring through Kazakhstan: they will be turned around in 100% of cases - these are microchips and any machine tools," said the head of logistics department of YM Trans Group Alexander Azatyan. According to him, the situation with traffic jams at the border is unlikely to change in the near future. Goods subject to sanctions will continue to be delayed and accumulate in queues, while ordinary goods will slowly pass the border, agrees Yemelin from SLC.

With this background, Russian companies may start sending "ambiguous" cargoes through the Far East and Mongolia, notes AKFA Commercial Director Alexei Chernyshev. In particular, goods can be imported through the checkpoints Manchuria - Zabaikalsk, Erlian (China) - Zamyn-Uud (Mongolia). However, even there queues are not excluded, as all carriers are reoriented to them, Chernyshev believes. "One can definitely say that this is not a temporary disruption, but rather a new reality - tighter control and increasing compliance with the sanctions of Western countries," Yemelin concluded.