Eurasian Economic Union is not responsible for economic hardships in Kazakhstan

 The Eurasian Economic Union and the Customs Union are not responsible for the economic situation Kazakhstan is facing nowadays, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports, citing President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying at the today’s extended government sitting.

“The weakening Russian rouble and the pressure of imported goods on the local producers have been damaging domestic manufacturing. However, the situation has nothing to do with the Eurasian Economic Union. The Union is the strategic path we have consciously taken. When working on its concept, we did understand there would be some adjustments. The global economy we are part of is introducing such adjustments. It would be unprofessional to assume the current economic hardships have been caused by the Eurasian Economic Union or the Customs Union”, President Nazarbayev said.

He elaborated that “Russia is facing a plight, and Kazakhstan is facing the adjacent consequences. The barbaric sanctions have only added to hardships (…) I’m confident Russia will find a way out (…) we need to come up with solutions to the temporary difficulties. I’ve had a talk with Russia’s President, Kazakhstan’s PM Karim Massimov has had a talk with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. There are about a dozen of enterprises that have been aggravating the hardships through imports or exports [disturbing the fragile balance amidst distorted trade]. We need to come up with friendly quotas and agreements”, President said.