EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan on risks facing Kazakhstan

David O’Sullivan

Central Asia (KZ) – EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan spoke about the risks facing Kazakhstan in the context of anti-Russian sanctions, NUR.KZ reports.

David O’Sullivan told a press conference in Astana that there were some problematic issues with the Kazakhstan side which were currently being discussed.

“The issue concerns the functionality and operation of the CPC (Caspian Pipeline Consortium) pipeline. Kazakhstan is the largest supplier of oil to the EU market, and we deeply appreciate this.

“Another important issue is the freezing of the Eurasian Development Bank’s assets. We worked very hard on this issue and thanks to our active work and the help of our Belgian colleagues, we were able to unfreeze these assets, and now they are being channeled to projects that will be implemented in Kazakhstan,” he noted.

Another specific issue, he said, concerns the sanctions regime. “This is my third visit. We are concerned that Kazakhstan may re-export sanctioned goods to Russia. We have seen a significant increase in imports from Kazakhstan and are concerned that they may be diverted to Russia,” he said.