By Yekaterina Syrtsova, Associate Account Manager, The PBN Company, Almaty

The proposed Customs Union between Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus - and now possibly Kyrgyzstan - has received extensive coverage, with much attention focused on the impact on Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. However, while there are many potential benefits for Russia in terms greater access to Kazakh markets, what is in the Customs Union for Kazakhstan? A lively debated has been prompted about the economic and the political merits of going along with Russia’s proposal.

The Union is an obvious win for Kazakh industries that supply the Russian market, such as metallurgy, coal and chemicals. It will stimulate development of Kazakhstan’s Russian exports in these sectors by eliminating the customs duties they currently pay, making them more competitive. The Union will also simplify on-going issues relating to transit of Kazakhstan’s oil through Russian pipeline systems. For many years transit routes in general - and the expansion of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in particular - have been a matter of political dispute with Moscow. That situation may now change.

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By Yekaterina Syrtsova, Associate Account Manager, The PBN Company, Almaty

At the end of April the Majilis, Kazakhstan’s lower chamber of Parliament, unanimously passed draft amendments to the media law which, if enacted, would give authorities the right to block any local or foreign website in Kazakhstan on the grounds of “violating national legislation.”

Aimed at regulating “online resources” such as blogs, forums, social networks, chat rooms and even online shops and libraries, the law gives them all the legal status of “media outlet.”  The Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan would have the right to issue a decision to block a website, and the decision would then have to be approved by the City Court of Astana.

According to a post on NewEurasia.net, a blog network on Central Asia, “many bloggers believe that the government wants a legal tool for filtering the web.” For example, LiveJournal, a leading Russian-language blog platform, has been blocked in Kazakhstan since early October last year without any official explanation.

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