By impeding the transit of Kazakh oil, Russia harms itself

Yerzhan Yesimkhanov, lawyer

In my eighteen years in the legal business, I have interacted in one way or another with a huge number of people, both inside our firm and outside it. These were a variety of people - colleagues, partners, clients, contractors. And I have long understood that, by and large, all the people with whom you can somehow intersect in your work are divided into two types - those who want to work, and those who want to create problems.

Those who want to work are result-oriented, and therefore it is easier to work with such people. No, conflicts are also possible with them. But the ultimate goal for these people is for the process to move forward, for the goal to approach and for there to be a benefit. Once they understand that you are the same yourself, work becomes easy and simple.

But there are other people - those who want to create problems. These people are also trying in every possible way to show that they are businesslike, concrete people and they are interested in the result - and it may even be that they themselves believe in it. But in the process of achieving this result, for some reason, they constantly stick spokes in the wheels. Create conflicts out of the blue. Find out who is more important, smarter and more significant. They pull the blanket over. Show character. And behind all these actions, the result is lost, because it is more interesting for such people to find out who is more important and more important, and not to do the job.

Over time, you begin to identify such people and distance yourself from them. Without any conflicts, scuffles and bloodshed - you just try not to deal with them. And you try to build your network of working contacts from people who want to work for results. This alignment often takes many years, it is a long-term work, but it is worth it.

Recently, a court in Russia suspended the operation of the CPC pipeline. Two thirds of Kazakhstan's export oil passes through this pipeline. The court did this at the suit of Rostransnadzor, and this department, in turn, filed a lawsuit not because there were any violations, but because they COULD BE. That is, this whole situation is purely administrative and, in fact, it arose out of the blue. But this administrative situation can lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for Kazakhstan out of the blue, without any objective reasons.

This is not the first time the Russian authorities have created problems for the export of our hydrocarbons, when Kazakhstan begins to take a too independent position on the issue of events in Ukraine. The fact that they also shoot themselves in the foot at the same time does not bother them. It is more important for them to show that they are more important. Show character. Pull the blanket over. The Russian authorities behave not like people who are interested in working for a result, but like people who are interested in creating problems.

And so you need to start to distance yourself. Look for alternative paths. Not only in the issue of oil transit, but also in all other issues. Without any conflicts, scuffles and bloodshed. Politely, but persistently, build a network of contacts for yourself from those counterparties who do not want to show character, but work for results. It's possible. This will take a lot of time and will require serious investments in infrastructure and large expenditures. This is a long-term job.

But since it so happened that at this stage it is more interesting for our main neighbor and counterparty not to work quietly together, but to show in every possible way who is in charge - it's worth it.