US Prepares Sanctions against Kyrgyzstan for Helping Russia Circumvent Sanctions – WP

The US is preparing sanctions against Kyrgyzstan, which supplies Russia with sanctioned equipment and electronics, such as drones, optical sights and bomb parts.

According to The Washington Post sources, officials in the Biden administration claim they are especially worried about the part Kyrgyzstan is playing. There are now several companies there that act as a conduit for Western and Asian commodities that Russia is unable to import lawfully from elsewhere.

According to the publication, the Biden administration is considering new economic measures to persuade the nation to suspend trade with Russia following months of unproductive trips to the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, by a stream of US and European diplomats.

Sanctions or blacklisting of companies accused of violations could be implemented as early as this week, two US officials, who spoke anonymously, said.

"Kyrgyzstan, while small relative to other countries, is a clear example of every factor at play at once to create an unacceptably [sanction] evasion-friendly environment," a source mentioned.

Trade records that are available to the public provide information regarding the size of the Kyrgyz shadow market. Records reveal that in 2022, before the invasion of Ukraine, the total value of Kyrgyzstan's exports to Russia surged, increasing by 250% over the year before. 

For some items, such as rifle scopes, there is no previous record of Kyrgyzstan ever exporting such goods to Russia.

Trade records also imply close collaboration with Moscow's buying initiatives. Records from the beginning of the year reveal that Kyrgyz companies have been buying sensitive electronics in large quantities from Chinese and South Korean firms, including expensive voltage amplifiers and specialised semiconductors worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

The documents demonstrate that over the same time period, approximately the same amounts of the same kinds of equipment were sent from Kyrgyzstan to Russia.

The Russian companies that received the goods were in most cases well-known suppliers to the Russian defence industry, a senior US official said.

The apparent consistency of the third-party transactions has been seen as the work of Russian intelligence services, which US officials say are now directly involved in schemes to circumvent economic sanctions.

In the spring, Lithuania announced that it had completely eliminated the import of Russian and Belarusian wood and forest products from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that was carried out bypassing sanctions.