Eurasianet: News from Central Asia

Russian media blame Kazakhstan for serious delays in the transport of goods across the border with Russia. At the same time, Kazakhstan is developing technological cooperation with the founder of Telegram, and Uzbekistan is facing a sharp increase in abroad debt.

Press material of the Russian business diary “Kommersant” burden Kazakhstan liable for serious delays in dense goods transport at land borders with Russia. According to the newspaper, the reason for the downtimes are the rigorous checks conducted by Kazakh customs officers who are to search contraband that can support Kremlin's war effort in Ukraine.

"Carriers see this as a sign of a change in Kazakhstan's policy towards more rigorous compliance with Western sanctions. They besides foretell that any loads will be diverted to the Chinese-Russian or Chinese-Mongolian-Russian border crossing points, which will further slow down traffic" – reads the article.

Traffic on the Kazakh-Russian border began to form in early September, and now the queues of trucks waiting for the briefing are already counting thousands of vehicles.

Kazakh president Kasym-Żomart Tokayev asked the founder of the Telegram platform, Paweł Durow, to assist in the implementation of Kazakh ambitions in the field of artificial intelligence. Tokayev's gathering with Durow took place on 2 October in Astana I, according to reports from the President's Chancellery, afraid cooperation in the fields of education, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Tokayev praised Telegram for its contribution to the improvement of Kazakhstan's digital agenda.

The Eurasian improvement Bank in its latest forecast predicts that labour migration from Tajikistan Russia will begin to drop noticeably in about a decade, and in 30 years it may fall almost to zero. According to the report, this trend will be driven by rising wages and demographic changes in Tajikistan.

Debt Uzbekistan It's increasing fast. At the end of the first half of 2025, the country's full abroad debt reached $72.2 billion, including $36.8 billion in sovereign debt and $34.4 billion in corporate liabilities. By comparison, in the same period of 2024 the full debt was $56.6 billion (31 billion state debt and 25.6 billion corporate). According to the approved state budget for 2025, more than half of the public debt will be allocated to cover the budget deficit.

Source: Eurasianet

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