Suffering from constipation: Polish customs are suffering from paranoia
Earlier this year, there was a huge traffic jam at the Polish border created by local customs. Customs officials refused to allow tanks with liquefied gas purchased by Polish companies in Kazakhstan into the country because of suspicions that the gas was actually Russian. Unsubstantiated suspicions of circumventing sanctions have long characterized Poland and other EU countries. The details are in the Izvestia article.
We are suspicious of your gas
Before the beginning of 2025, the EU imposed a ban on the import of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Russia. Liquefied gas from Kazakhstan was also affected - hundreds of rail tank cars with gas from this Central Asian country, shipped at the end of December 2024, could not cross the Belarusian-Polish border for several weeks. More than a hundred tank cars with hydrocarbon gas produced by Tengizchevroil LLP stood at the stations Brest-Centralny, Brest-Vostochny, and Baranavichy-Centralny because of problems with the Polish customs, which did not want to promptly let the cargo into the country.
Karachaganak - Uralsk gas pipeline
In accordance with the current order of the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, in the period up to mid-May 2025, the export of liquefied gas produced only by Tengizchevroil, NCOC, Zhaikmunai, as well as from raw materials from the Karachaganak field is allowed from the country. But Polish customs officers began to request more and more new documents confirming the Kazakh origin of the goods. "Polish customs officers always work very slowly, delaying as much as possible - especially when it comes to goods from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Kazakhstan has also been hit, as the European authorities have long been actively pressuring the government of the republic to reduce cooperation with Russia, and mainly in the context of circumventing sanctions," says Kristina Ismagilova, a political scientist and expert on Poland.
Polish customs authorities believe that Russian gas is being exported under the guise of Kazakhstani LPG. The customs delay jeopardized the benefits Kazakhstan hoped to gain from the EU ban on Russian LPG, hoping to replace it with its own. In particular, 7.2 thousand tons of LPG were shipped to Poland from Kazakhstan in December 2024 (plus 5.4 thousand tons compared to December 2023). But then there was a hitch.
Kazakhstan's embassy in Brussels entered into negotiations with the EU envoy on sanctions. Then Kazakh diplomats made contact with Polish authorities. But the Poles pointed out that part of the gas extracted from the Karachaganak field, after processing at the Orenburg GPP, becomes the property of the Kazakh-Russian joint venture KazRosGas. Since Russian capital is also invested in this company, it is subject to sanctions. Brussels fears that the blue fuel owned by this company is also being supplied to the EU under the guise of Kazakh fuel.
Finally, on January 29, the situation with gas stuck at the Polish border gained some momentum. Customs began to gradually let tank cars through. However, it does it very slowly, because the inspections continue. Polish customs and tax officials gave a comment to Reuters. "Due to the imposition of sanctions on certain goods, in this case gas, and suspicions about its origin, the service is conducting detailed checks to confirm that the declared origin of raw materials corresponds to the actual one. Until the checks are completed, the tanks will remain at checkpoints," the service said.
Russian plywood
According to Polish customs officials, certificates of origin and contracts are subject to inspection, but not only. In addition, a description of the production processes of the transported LPG is also requested. If necessary, gas samples are taken for laboratory tests. "In case of doubts about the source of origin of the gas, the clarification procedures continue and transportation remains suspended until the issue is clarified," the agency officials explain.
David O'Sullivan, the EU sanctions representative, also commented on the situation. "I assume that the liquefied gas was transported through the Russian Federation, and there are reasons to believe that these products may be of Russian origin. And the Polish authorities have every reason to demand documents confirming the Kazakh origin of the products. It should not be difficult to provide documents and prove that the products were produced in Kazakhstan," O'Sullivan emphasized.
Importers who were able to convincingly prove that the liquefied gas in the tanks was produced in Kazakhstan from raw materials extracted from the Tengiz field have already started receiving their goods. "The first shipment of propane from Tengiz has passed customs clearance and has been reloaded into our terminal," said a representative of a Polish company.
Oil refinery in Kazakhstan
Similar problems have arisen with the delivery of oil from Kazakhstan to the EU. Thus, back in the fall of 2023, the German edition Tagesschau expressed suspicions that the oil coming to Germany and Poland through the pipeline "Druzhba" and passing under the documents as extracted in Kazakhstan, in fact has a Russian origin. However, it is very difficult to draw a 100% reliable conclusion on this matter, "It is quite possible that the transit really involves exports to Germany directly Kazakh oil. Nevertheless, the fact that the infrastructure passing through Russian territory is being used allows us to say that at some point it could also be used to supply our resources," says Russian economist Ivan Lizan.
Moscow Refinery
According to him, the grades of oil produced in Russia and Kazakhstan are not very different from each other. "It will not be possible for EU experts to establish with precision where exactly the fuel came from. Thus, Moscow in any case remains in the advantage. We should not forget that if Kazakh oil is sent to the FRG, Russia has more opportunities to expand supplies to promising markets in Asia," the expert notes. That is, in this case, Russia and Kazakhstan act in conjunction: Astana, directing its oil resource for sale in the EU, leaves Moscow a huge Asian market.
The suspicions that have arisen in the EU that Kazakhstan is helping Russia to circumvent sanctions are not only related to energy resources. Bartosz Bezubik, chairman of the board of the Polish plywood factory Biaform and vice president of the Polish Wood Panel Manufacturers Association, complains that although the EU has imposed sanctions against Russian timber, they exist only on paper. According to Bezubik, EU countries are still flooded with Russian plywood.
Elements of pressure
Western officials have repeatedly demanded that Astana not assist Russia. Back in March 2023, EU sanctions representative David O'Sullivan visited the country and complained that a flood of "unusual goods" was pouring into the EU from Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states. Moscow said at the time that the West was seeking to harm Russia's economic cooperation with Central Asian states and that the EU was exerting undisguised pressure on the region. Nine months later, O'Sullivan returned to Astana accompanied by U.S. and British officials - and insisted that Kazakhstan refuse to cooperate with Moscow.
Last year, the Western bloc was already serious about fighting the re-export of Russian goods from Kazakhstan. And the U.S. tried to put the country's customs under its control. In August 2024, the U.S. government agency USAID, notorious for its interference in the affairs of sovereign states around the world, gave Kazakhstan new computer servers to replace old equipment. "The introduction of innovative technologies will optimize processes, increase accuracy, improve transparency and create a favorable business environment that will attract more investors and stimulate economic development," U.S. Ambassador Daniel Rosenblum said on the occasion.
The purpose of this gift is easy to understand: the US wanted to ensure reliable compliance with anti-Russian sanctions. To this end, Washington decided to achieve the best possible monitoring of the sanctions regime. However, it is still unclear what will happen to these plans now, after the return to power in the United States of President Donald Trump, who, as you know, decided to disperse USAID and subject the activities of this office to audit. But regardless of the U.S. position and opinion, there is still the European Union, whose leadership declares its determination to continue sanctions pressure on Russia.
Astana
Natalia Eremina, a doctor of political sciences and professor at St. Petersburg State University, noted in a conversation with Izvestia that the Western bloc countries are trying to put pressure on Astana, encouraging it to organize deliveries of its products from the EU in such ways that they lie outside Russia's transport infrastructure. "A long-standing plan to cut Russia's ties with other post-Soviet states is being methodically carried out. First, sanctions are imposed against Russia. Then the West threatens secondary sanctions against those countries that economically cooperate with Russia. And they are putting particular pressure on Kazakhstan, a key Central Asian state located at the crossroads of trade routes and possessing its own oil and gas reserves. In relation to Astana, the West is using carrot and stick tactics. On the one hand, the EU calls Kazakhstan one of its key partners. In November 2022, the EU signed a strategic partnership agreement with Kazakhstan. On the other hand, Kazakhstan is being systematically pressured to break away from Russia as much as possible," Eremina said.
According to her, the difficulties accompanying the importation of goods from Kazakhstan to the EU are a conscious element of pressure. "Kazakhstan is transparently hinted: come on, transfer all your cargo traffic to the Trans-Caspian corridor, bypassing Russia, thus you will remove from yourself at least part of the suspicion that you import to us goods of Russian origin. Although the EU cannot completely put an end to such schemes in any case. It is very difficult, you know, to distinguish Russian gas molecules from Kazakhstani gas molecules," Eremina concludes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
