Another Kazakhstani Company Hit by US Sanctions

The company Kazstanex has been added to the latest US Treasury Department sanctions list. The company fell under US sanctions due to possible participation in the supply of Western equipment to Russia, Orda.kz reports.

According to the US Treasury, Kazstanex participated in a scheme organized by Sergei Ushko, director of the Russian company Technology of Open Systems Development (T.R.O.S.). T.R.O.S.'s website states that the company supplies "machine tools from Central Europe" to Russia and is the official representative of several manufacturers of metalworking equipment.

The US Treasury Department does not specify whether these machines can be used in the defense industry. Still, it emphasizes that the sanctions are related to “the activities of the industrial sector of the Russian economy.”

Sergei Ushko’s son, Russian national Aleksandr Sergeyevich Ushko (Aleksandr Ushko), works at a European machine tool company and helps his father procure machine tools for Russia-based end-users. Sergei Ushko and Aleksandr Ushko coordinate with their affiliates, Russian nationals Igor Vladimirovich Khomenko (Igor Khomenko) and Tatyana Valentinovna Khomenko (Tatyana Khomenko), to leverage several Central Asia-based intermediaries to transship advanced machine tools to Russia. Uzbekistan-based OOO Uzstanex (Uzstanex) and Kazakhstan-based Kazstanex operate as nominal recipients of the shipments of machine tools from Europe, before shipping them to PRC-based Shanghai Winsun Imp and Exp Co Ltd (Shanghai Winsun) to reach Russia,the US Treasury Department said.

Kazstanex participated in government procurement at least 35 times and engaged in machine tool deliveries.

This is not the first such company to be included in the US sanctions list. Previously, organizations such as Catu Tech Ltd., Defense Engineering, and a branch of the Turkish All Global Trading Elektronik Dis Ticaret Ltd Sti were included.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny