Kazakhstan is becoming a "grey zone" of sanctions trade

The role of neighboring Kazakhstan in minimizing the damage from sanctions for the people of Russia is growing every day. Novye Izvestia has already written that Kazakh banks open accounts for Russian citizens and issue them bank cards of Visa and Mastercard payment systems banned by the West. And now, people from Russia go to Kazakhstan for cars and auto parts, and more and more actively. In the local dealerships, according to Kommersant, the demand for cars has grown tenfold, especially in the city of Kostanay, where the Chevrolet car assembly plant operates - they stopped supplying them to Russia. It is clear that such a rush is due to the fact that the cost of cars in Kazakhstan has become lower than in our country. Journalists claim that it is quite possible to buy a car there for a million rubles, and in Russia the same one will cost under two million.

True, a third of this difference will be “eaten up” by the customs duty when the car is transported to Russia. “In Kazakhstan it is 12% with VAT. And when you import from there to Russia, you need to pay VAT again, but in the amount of 20%,” explains expert Georgiy Vlastopulo. But this is unlikely to stop buyers - it still comes out cheaper.