«Many contracts that are concluded on behalf of Kyrgyz businessmen are nominal,» Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Edil Baisalov said in an interview with Deutsche Welle, answering the question why Kyrgyzstan is helping Russia evade sanctions.
According to him, Kyrgyzstan’s interests in no way include circumvention of sanctions against Russia. The Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers recalled that these are literally about 45 items of dual-use goods.
«I myself was in Brussels in December 2023, we addressed the European Union. You see, we have built a free market economy. We cannot control millions of transactions, agreements, contracts of hundreds of thousands of economic entities. We cannot know what they sign, where they bring them. We stop those who cross our border, we look at them, of course. And even the Russian side takes this kind of our actions with understanding. But the fact is that many of the contracts that are concluded on behalf of Kyrgyz entrepreneurs are nominal. These goods never even enter our country,» Edil Baisalov said.
He noted that Kyrgyzstan proposed that the EU notify the republic of contracts that Kyrgyz enterprises allegedly sign. But the EU responded that it was impossible.
«But it is also impossible to demand totalitarian control from us so that we can control millions of transactions. And what concerns specifically the movement of goods, we are looking at all of that. I think that Kyrgyzstan currently enjoys the trust of the entire world community, including Russian partners. It is our largest trading partner. Therefore, we would not like to find ourselves in a situation where our small developing country is required to solve some problems between third parties,» the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Edil Baisalov noted that Kyrgyzstan is not afraid of secondary sanctions.
And those decisions that have recently been announced (limiting banking transactions with the Russian Federation. — Note of 24.kg news agency) and received a public response are not really government decisions. It is about the merger of commercial banks. It is the private sector that may be afraid of something.
«Perhaps, it is doing the right thing with its commercial interests. But I would like to repeat that all the countries of the world, our main foreign policy partners understand that our country buys most of the range of goods from the same Russia, so we will not limit ourselves in any way, especially in an era when we see a great economic recovery, the interest of our own people in development, we will not cut back on ourselves in any way,» he concluded.
