Fly-by-nighters: Minister Comments on Sanctioned Companies

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Nurlan Baibazarov told journalists about companies that have fallen under British sanctions for alleged ties to Russia, Orda.kz reports.

The Minister commented on the sidelines of the Ministerial Conference of the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation.

As far as I remember, two companies from this list were previously subject to American sanctions. These are fly-by-night companies. When we start investigating, we see that they do not have full-fledged business activities. They open, sign some kind of contract and disappear. After the deal is completed, the financial services responsible for sanctions in the West simply document these companies after the fact and add them to the list, explained Nurlan Baibazarov.

According to the Minister, these companies “pursue profit,” which does not mean that Kazakhstan is systematically circumventing sanctions. 

This is difficult to combat, but in general we will comply with the restrictions that we have agreed with the relevant US and European sanctions control services, added Baibazarov.

It was previously reported that companies registered in Kazakhstan were on the UK sanctions list due to possible links to Russia.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova