DISINFO: The EU imposes sanctions on partners if they cooperate with other countries
SUMMARY
Unlike Russia, which supports multipolarity, the EU (like the U.S.) follows a "me or no one" approach, punishing alternative partnerships with sanctions. EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan warned that Kazakh companies could face restrictions under the 16th sanctions package if it is proven that they aid Russia. In other words, cooperating with Russia will be punished. Meanwhile, the EU’s economic decline continues, with deindustrialization and growing U.S. dependence. As Russia-Kazakhstan trade has grown 1.5 times in three years, the EU’s role in Kazakhstan may soon become purely symbolic.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the EU sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The EU works with Kazakhstan in order to prevent the use of its territory as a platform for the circumvention of EU sanctions imposed on Russia. EU respects the decision of other countries, like Kazakhstan, not to join the sanctions and welcomes constructive dialogue with the Kazakh authorities regarding sanctions circumvention. An intensive dialogue is going on in this respect on both political and technical level.
“Initially, the EU welcomed the sharp decrease in the re-exports of the most sensitive items from Kazakhstan to Russia after April 2023. However, more recently, the EU has identified that trade has been increasing for all Common High Priority (CHP) goods and has remained stable at a much higher level compared to pre-invasion,” said Francesca Dalboni, a European Commission Spokesperson.
During his fourth visit to Astana on January 30, 2025 David O'Sullivan, the European Union's Special Envoy for the implementation of sanctions, emphasised that the EU has no intention of pressuring Kazakhstan to adopt sanctions against Russia:
“We do not intend to interfere in the legitimate trade relations between Kazakhstan and Russia that have developed over many years.”
The EU does not adopt any secondary sanctions but can take specific actions including listings against operators or individuals that are facilitating sanctions circumvention. As a consequence of these listings, EU operators or individuals would be banned from trading with these entities or individuals.
David O'Sullivan explained that the sanctions list only includes those companies for which “we [EU] have indisputable evidence of involvement in sanctions violations.”
“Kazakhstani companies were also identified in the course of such an audit. They are included on the list only because they were involved in illicit trade and facilitated, we had evidence, the Russian military-industrial complex.
These are not extraterritorial sanctions, this is done to ensure compliance with the sanctions that we have imposed.”
Learn more about the EU's restrictive measures. See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that The West openly blackmails the Central Asian states; that EU demands that Kazakhstan join in anti-Russia sanctions; that Borrell admitted that the West relies on Kazakhstan’s support in anti-Russia blockade; that West tries to force Kazakhstan to join anti-Russian sanctions policy; the EU uses the CIS to contain Russia by all means: financial, economic, and military; that US-sponsored Kazakhstan protests aimed to undermine CIS stability, that protests in Kazakhstan are a new Western attempt to organise a colour revolution, that events in Kazakhstan are another Western-made colour revolution or that EU and US aim to generate a new wave of anti-government protests in Belarus.